New strains of tuberculosis spreading worldwide due to drug resistance

Tuberculosis is making a comeback according to the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The disease, which affects the lungs but is also capable of affecting other parts of the body as well, has re-emerged and is now spreading worldwide prompting great concern among healthcare professionals.

Researchers have determined that there has been a spike in cases of multi drug-resistant TB as well as the rare but even more serious extensively drug-resistant TB or XDR-TB. Several cases of the disease have now been found in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America.

These strains of TB, along with the re-emergence of other common diseases such as gonnorhea that have developed resistance to conventional treatment are a very serious issue. For many years, researchers and other health officials have been warning that we could be seeing a rise in infectious disease cases. This is due in part by the eroding state of modern healthcare systems here in the U.S. as well as other developed countries. When this is compounded with the fact that there are many nations in the world that have little or no healthcare infrastructure, the picture that emerges is not a pretty one.

Scientists have urged that unless more is done to stem the tide of these rapidly spreading, drug-resistant infectious diseases, we may soon be facing an even more alarming surge of people contracting these diseases.

Additional Sources:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

World Health Organization