Do you know: Tuberculosis strains resistant to new drugs are transmitted between patients
in 2025
Tuberculosis (TB) is the world’s leading infectious disease killer and multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) is a particular threat to global health. A study led by the Swiss Institute of Tropical and Public Health (Swiss TPH) shows that resistance to the new MDR-TB treatment regimen recently recommended by the World Health Organization is already spreading among patients. The results, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, underline the urgent need for better surveillance and infection control to combat the rise of antimicrobial resistance.
Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis is a major concern
More than 10 million people fall ill with tuberculosis (TB) every year. The disease remains the world’s leading infectious disease killer with approximately 1.25 million annual deaths. The disease is still found in all countries, but certain regions have a very high burden, such as India, Central Asia and South Africa. Multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) continues to be a major threat to public health, adding to the growing concern about the rise of antimicrobial resistance.
The conventional treatment regimen for MDR-TB is long, expensive, and associated with adverse events. In 2022, the World Health Organization (WHO) endorsed a new 6-month regimen – the BPaL(M) – based on evidence of its improved safety and efficacy from numerous clinical studies, including TB-PRACTECAL.
Monitor the performance of a new treatment regimen
“While this new regimen is a game-changer for patients suffering from MDR-TB, we knew it would be a difficult situation to tackle. Mycobacterium tuberculosisthe bacteria that cause tuberculosis,” said Sébastien Gagneux, Head of the Department of Medical Parasitology and Infection Biology at the Swiss TPH and senior author of the study. this new regimen.”
A study led by the Swiss TPH in collaboration with the National Center for Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases in Tbilisi, Georgia, published yesterday in New England Journal of Medicine it is now examined in detail whether resistance to the drugs in the new regime has already developed since its introduction, and whether this resistance is being transmitted between patients.
Over a quarter of resistant strains arise from patient-to-patient transmission
The researchers analyzed nearly 90,000 genomes M. tuberculosis a song from Georgia and many other countries around the world. They identified a total of 514 strains that were resistant to TB drugs, including both old and new treatment systems. These highly drug-resistant strains have been found in 27 countries across four continents.
Alarmingly, 28% of these strains were transferred directly from one patient to another. “We already had anecdotal evidence of resistance emerging to the new regimen, but we didn’t know how much transmission was responsible for the spread of these highly drug-resistant strains,” said Galo A. Goig, a collaborator postdoc at TPH Switzerland and first. author of the study.
“The good news is that the overall number of these cases is still low. However, more than a quarter of these highly drug-resistant cases are due to patient-to-patient transmission, just two years after the WHO endorsed the new regimen, said Goig.
Call for better surveillance and infection control
These findings have important implications for policy and public health interventions. “These new drugs took many years to develop, and to prevent drug resistance from emerging, it is essential to combine the deployment of these new regimens with robust diagnostic and surveillance systems,” said postdoctoral collaborator Chloé Loiseau at TPH Switzerland and co. the author of the paper.
The authors emphasize the need for improved diagnostic tools, better infection control and robust surveillance systems to limit the spread of these highly drug-resistant strains, and to protect the effectiveness of the new treatment system.
Tackling antimicrobial resistance
Although new TB drugs are already on the horizon, experts are concerned about that M. tuberculosis ways to evade new drugs will continue to be sought. “The example of these highly drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis demonstrates that antimicrobial resistance is one of the most important threats to global health today,” Gagneux said. “We must stay ahead of this ongoing race between drug development and bacterial resistance, and take proactive measures to prevent a ‘post-antibiotic era’ for tuberculosis and other diseases.”
Regarding tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease. Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis is spread from person to person through the air. Symptoms of the disease include cough, chest pain, weight loss, fever and night sweats. Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is a form of tuberculosis caused by bacteria that do not respond to the two most effective first-line TB drugs. Only about 2 in 5 people with MDR-TB had access to treatment in 2022.