Prevalence of drug-resistant TB in West Africa higher than previously thought

Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) could become a serious public health threat in West Africa unless effective surveillance and control measures are implemented, according to a study published in the open access journal BMC Medicine. Researchers from the West-African Network of Excellence for TB, AIDS and Malaria (WANETAM) found the prevalence of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) to be unexpectedly high in eight West-African countries.