Friday, August 31, 2012

Blog 1: Treatment lapses may increase TB drug resistance

http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2012/08/29/treatment-lapses-may-increase-tb-drug-resistance/


     A study has shown that 43.7% of people infected with Tuberculosis have the strain that is drug resistance and is refered to as multidrug-resisitant turberculosis (MDR) or even extensively drug-resistant (XDR). The World Health Organization says that out of all the cases of TB in the world, about 9.4% have XDR. These forms of TB are untreatable with a first and second line of medications. The second line of medications is much more dangerous since it has more side effects. There are only two ways in which a person can develope MDR or XDR and those are by personal contact (close ranges and bodily fluids) and by wrongful use of medicines and not completing a perscription.




       I found this article to be very interesting. I was not aware that there was a form of TB that was not cureable. I always thought that people used to die from TB due to lack of medications and living conditions. It is evident througout the article that living conditions can increase the chances of a person developing MDR or XDR. People living in poverished countries or even people who just live in close vacinity to others are most at risk for the disease. Also, those who were treated with the second line of drugs were four times more likely to develope the form XDR. Turberculosis is a very serious matter and people should be careful with taking the medicines correctly and continuing the percription even if they start to feel better before they run out.

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