Tuberculosis (TB) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, especially in the developing countries. World health organization (WHO) estimates that 8.8 million new cases and 1.1 million deaths from TB occurred in the year 2010. Most of the estimated numbers of cases were in Asia (59%) and Africa (26%). In Libya, the prevalence of TB cases is estimated in the period of 2010 at 40 cases per 100.000 populations and the incidence of 53 cases per 100.000 populations. Globally, there were an estimated 630,000 cases of multi drug resistant (MDR) TB (range, 460 000790 000) among the worlds 12 million prevalent cases of TB in 2011. Almost 60% of MDR-TB cases worldwide are estimated to occur in India, China, the Russian Federation and South Africa. MDR-TB is caused by strains of M. tuberculosis (MTB) that are resistant to at least isoniazid and rifampicin, the most effective first-line TB drugs.
Last date updated on July, 2014
