Coinciding with World TB Day, new consensus statements have been drafted to address the growing problem of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis.
These statements - published in the European Respiratory Journal - are significant, because this is the first time that doctors treating patients with these new strains of tuberculosis (TB) have reached a consensus on patient management.
The major obstacle to developing guidelines for treatment of these forms of TB has been a lack of clinical evidence. These forms of the disease are so recent, it could be many years before sufficient evidence is available to form the basis of successful treatment.
Although in many parts of the world - the Americas, Europe, western Pacific and southeast Asia - incidence of TB is decreasing, multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB) - where the disease is resistant to at least isoniazid and rifampicin - is on the rise.
The first cases of MDR-TB were reported in "resource poor, high burden" areas in the 1980s. The World Health Organization (WHO) now estimate that about 450,000 new cases of MDR-TB occur each year, mostly within Europe.
Lead author Prof. Christoph Lange, head of the Respiratory Infections Assembly at the European Respiratory Society, says:
"These consensus statements provide very valuable support for physicians treating patients with these deadly conditions in all parts of Europe. The current management of patients with multidrug- and extensively drug-resistant TB is complex, very costly for health care systems and burdensome for those who are affected."
He adds:
"We have harmonised individual expert opinions on the management of multidrug- and extensively drug-resistant TB in adults and children to ensure that consensus is available where clinical evidence is still lacking. As clinicians we hope to improve the treatment of multidrug- and extensively drug-resistant TB and the life of our patients who suffer from these difficult-to-treat conditions."
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