What is Multi Drug Resistant Tuberculosis and how long it take to get Cured? Watch Video

TB is one of the most infectious diseases around the globe and India is one of the most severely hit nations with maximum cases of tuberculosis. As per a WHO report India accounted for 41 per cent of the total global drop of 1.3 million. The strains of TB are becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics and multidrug-resistant tuberculosis is considerably more difficult to treat than drug-susceptible TB. So in this video let's learn about MDR-TB and what causes a normal case of TB to become drug-resistant. 

 

What is TB or Tuberculosis?

TB is a potentially serious infectious bacterial disease which majorly affects the lungs. It's a highly contagious disease as it can spread from an infected person to another if the infected person coughs or sneezes.  While many people experience the symptoms of TB, others don’t have symptoms making the  infection damage the lungs slowly. 

 

Symptoms of Tuberculosis

Some of the common symptoms of TB are 

• Pain in the chest

• Pain while breathing

• Chronic cough with blood

• Fatigue, fever, loss of appetite, malaise, night sweats, or sweating in Body. 

• Other common symptoms include loss of muscle, phlegm, severe unintentional weight loss, shortness of breath, or swollen lymph nodes. 

 

What is Multi Drug Resistant Tuberculosis? 

According to medical science Multidrug-resistant TB (MDR TB) is caused by an organism that is resistant to at least isoniazid and rifampin, the two most potent TB drugs. In simple words when a person gets resistant to the drugs which cure TB making it difficult to cure the disease.  The bacteria of TB become resistant to the medication and this leads to difficulty in killing them. 

Cure of MDR TB

A person needs medical advice and medication to cure MDR TB. As per statistics only 50% of the people with MDR-TB around the world are successfully cured. MDR-TB treatment can consist of more than 14,000 pills, plus daily injections for six months. Fluoroquinolones (levofloxacin and moxifloxacin), bedaquiline, and linezolid (group A) were considered highly effective and are strongly recommended to be included in an MDR-TB regimen unless contraindicated.