Rapid Detection of Tuberculosis and Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis

Abstract

Tuberculosis remains one of the major unresolved global health problems, and the situation is worsening in many parts of the world, primarily because of the association between tuberculosis and the epidemic of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and AIDS and the growing prevalence of drug resistance. The highest prevalence of both tuberculosis and drug resistance is found in countries with limited resources, which cannot afford to implement modern methods of epidemic control of tuberculosis. The detection of new cases of tuberculosis in these areas is based on provisional diagnosis by means of direct acid-fast bacilli testing of sputum smears, a . . .