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The Ever-Mutating Enemy
Tuberculosis is spreading with renewed vigour globally as are its more virulent strains like multi-drug-resistant TB and extensively drug-resistant TB. Even as the bacteria mutates and there is urgent need to deal with the many inadequacies of the present treatment regimen, new drugs backed by innovative research are conspicuously absent. A new candidate anti-TB drug proposed to be tried by the Open Source Drug Discovery initiative with the Council of Scientifi c and Industrial Research offers a ray of hope.
Tuberculosis (TB) spreads through the air and respects no border, the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Stop TB department has warned. Reports from around the world reinforce the warning.
The mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria that usually attack the lungs can also attack the kidneys, spine and brain. The deadly airborne disease is making a comeback with added vigour and putting a huge burden on already strained healthcare systems, according to reports from different regions around the globe. Today, treatments for TB are threatened by the emergence of strains of the disease resistant to multiple lines of drugs. Also, it is no longer a disease that afflicts only the poor with the economically well off also falling prey to it increasingly.
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