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Drug Resistance
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Fact Sheet on Drug Resistant TB >>>
___________________________It is very important, however, that the patient continue to take the medicine correctly for the full length of treatment. If the medicine is taken incorrectly or stopped the patient may become sick again and will be able to infect others with TB. As a result many public health authorities recommend Directly Observed Therapy (DOT), in which a health care worker insures that the patient takes his/her medicine.
If the medicine is taken incorrectly and the patient becomes sick with TB a second time, the TB may be harder to treat because it has become drug resistant. This means that the TB germs in the body are unaffected by some drugs used to treat TB.
Regular checkups are needed to see how treatment is progressing. Sometimes the drugs used to treat TB can cause side effects. It is important both for people undergoing preventive therapy and people being treated for TB disease to immediately let a doctor know if they begin having any unusual symptoms.
Multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (called MDR TB for short) is a very dangerous form of tuberculosis. Some TB germs become resistant to the effects of some TB drugs. This happens when TB disease is not properly treated.
These resistant germs can then cause TB disease. The TB disease they cause is much harder to treat because the drugs do not kill the germs. MDR TB can be spread to others, just like regular TB.
It is important that patients with TB disease follow their doctor's instructions for taking their TB medicine so that they will not develop MDR TB.
after starting to take the drugs.
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