Multiple Drug Resistant Tuberculosis(MRTB)
How We Stop MRTB |
|
|
There are two main strategies we use to fight diseases that become resistant to some drugs. The first strategy is to find a new drug to kill the new germs. To do this, researchers spend years and years in the lab and in the jungle, searching for new drugs that will help to kill harmful bacteria. New drugs take a long time to discover and provide to the public. Since antibiotics were first discovered in the 1940s, there have been at least 6 or 7 different drugs used to treat tuberculosis. Strains of TB that exist now are resistant to almost all of these drugs. If TB bacteria become resistant to all types of antibiotics, we can no longer say that there is a cure for tuberculosis.
A second strategy, and a much easier one to kill harmful bacteria, is to take the cure we already have and use it properly. If patients with tuberculosis take all the drugs their doctor prescribes, for the entire length of time that the doctor has prescribed, TB will go away. In some countries, this is an economic problem, but in Canada, treatment of TB is provided free of charge. A new program started in 1991 called DOT, or "Directly Observed Therapy". In this program, a health care worker visits the TB patient every day to help that patient take the medications and to make sure it is done properly. In this way, we can ensure that patients don't misuse antibiotics and TB is conquered, once and for all!
Play the Drug Resistance Game to see if YOU can stop MRTB !!!