press_release_conclusion: 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.
abstract_conclusion: West African drug-resistance prevalence poses a previously underestimated, yet serious public health threat, and our estimates obtained differ significantly from previous World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates.