A completely drug-resistant strain of tuberculosis (TB), the second leading global cause of death, was recently discovered in India. Dubbed totally drug-resistant tuberculosis (TDR-TB), this form of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis is resistant to all known first- and second-line TB drugs — 15 in total. Studies show, however, that this case is not the first report of TDR-TB. Rather, it is simply a progression of the existing super extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB). With similar outbreaks in Italy and Iran in 2007 and 2009 respectively, the World Health Organization (WHO) identified inadequate management of the disease as the greatest cause of the bacterium’s resistance evolution. Drug misuse and timeworn TB testing, combined with lack of TB drug developments in the past 50 years, have led to worrisome results in its global evolution.
