November 1, 2010
Science Speaks: HIV & TB News
Guest post: “Treating MDR-TB is imperative”
By Salmaan Keshavjee and Paul Farmer
The world is in the midst of a multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) epidemic. This airborne disease killed an estimated 1.5 million people over the last decade—a troubling number that reflects the vulnerability of a number of populations, including children, who comprise 10% of patients, and those with HIV/MDR-TB co-infection, who face high mortality rates without rapid and appropriate care. But MDR-TB is treatable, and when patients are diagnosed early and put on the correct regimen of second-line TB medications, cure rates can be as high as 90% in some settings....
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