Multidrug Resistant Tuberculosis Research Paper

Multidrug Resistant Tuberculosis (MDR TB)
TB has plagued the world since the beginning of cattle domestication in 4000bc. The man and beast interaction allowed M. bovis (mad cow disease) to develop properties allowing for survival within their new hosts. This new class of bacteria was deemed. The evolution of the TB causing bacteria did not stop there. The newest mutation of this bacterium is MDR TB, or multidrug resistant tuberculosis. The three main causes that have allowed TB to progressively develop into this multidrug resistant strain are progression, transmission, and over-population.
One cause of MDR Tuberculosis is its progression due to unawareness and the overwhelming number infections in third world countries. M. tuberculosis is an
Transmission occurs primarily from non-compliance of the drug-therapy and inaccessibility of proper air-borne isolation techniques. Correctly quarantining a known infected patient is imperative, particularly until the strain of TB has been determined as well as until treatment has been launched. To clarify how MDR TB is inadvertently transmitted WHO explains, “Treatment for MDR TB involves drug therapy over many months or years. Despite the longer course of treatment the cure rate decreases from over 90 percent for nonresistant strains of TB to 50 percent or less for MDR TB.” (2012). Laid out by the American Lung Association (2013), “A strain of MDR TB originally develops when a case of drug-susceptible tuberculosis is improperly or incompletely treated. This occurs when a physician does not prescribe proper treatment regimens or when a patient is unable to adhere to therapy. Improper treatment allows individual TB bacilli that have natural resistance to a drug to multiply.” When a patient has no signs or symptoms of latent tuberculosis, the consequences may be life threatening, not only to the patient, but also to all the people that are around