TB and drug resistance

  • Multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) is resistant to front-line drugs (isoniazid and rifampicin, the most powerful anti-TB drugs).

  • Extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB) is resistant to front-line and second-line drugs.

  • The risk of developing drug-resistant TB increases when patients don't take all prescribed drugs for the designated period of time. However, many people don’t or can’t.

  • In 2010, there was an estimated prevalence of 650,000 cases of multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB), and in 2008 it was estimated there were 150,000 MDR-TB deaths annually.

  • The number of patients enrolled on MDR-TB treatment increased to 46,000 in 2010.

  • While more people are being treated for MDR-TB in 2010, it is just 16% of the estimated number of MDR-TB patients that needed treatment i.e. MDR-TB patients that would be identified if all newly-notified TB patients were tested for drug resistance.


Picture by Gary Hampton
  • 27 countries account for 85% of all MDR-TB cases. The top three countries with the largest number of cases are India, China and the former Soviet Union (WHO report).

  • No official estimates hav been made on the number of XDR-TB cases but it is thought that around 25,000 new cases occur every year. By the end of 2010, 69 countries had reported at least one case of extensively drug-resistant TB.