Re-emergence of tuberculosis

Tuberculosis (TB) has remained a major infectious disease in the world. With the AIDS epidemic, the emergence of TB as a cause of severe and life- threatening infection has become a common-place occurrence in many countries. In the USA, the increase of new cases of TB average at the rate of 20% each year. Of great alarm is the findings of multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) with outbreaks in hospitals throughout the world, as well as in other institutions. No health care worker is immune from exposure to TB. TB control requires education of health care workers, a program of ongoing screening, isolation of patients early in the course of their disease, and administration of multiple anti-TB drug to cover and treat MDR-TB. Newer diagnostic methods are needed as well as more active and less toxic drug therapies. Controlled clinical trials are required to determine optimum therapy.