Two independent perspectives from schools of public health at Emory University and Boston University sound the alarm about a need to change current strategy for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB).

Dr. Ruth L. Berkelman, professor and director of the Center for Public Health Preparedness and Research, and Ms. Ellen Whitney, department of epidemiology, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University and colleagues Dr. Gail Cassell and Dr. Salmaan Keshavjee at Harvard Medical School published online in Clinical Infectious Diseases. This perspective aims to raise the alarm that drug resistant tuberculosis deserves a higher public health priority.

Dr. C. Robert Horsburgh, professor of epidemiology, Boston University and Dr. Charles L. Daley, National Jewish Health, Denver, Colorado also recently published online in Clinical Infectious Diseases calling for significant strengthening of detection and treatment of drug resistant tuberculosis.

While the incidence of tuberculosis overall has declined in the past decade, the incidence of the more dangerous forms of tuberculosis, MDR-TB, has not. It is a disease that is extremely difficult and expensive to treat and is a growing global public health threat.

Read the articles:

Berkelman RL, Cassell GH, Whitney EA, Keshavjee S. Shifting Gears to Control Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis. http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2014/07/11/cid.ciu479.full?sid=b9395726-ecbc-481f-bdde-a081228abbbf

Daley CL, Horsburgh CR.  Treatment for Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis: It’s Worse Than We Thought! http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2014/08/05/cid.ciu578.full?sid=036bc2e4-0542-4ee0-a346-1647fb058137