China Epidemic of Hard-to-Treat TB Fueled by Deficient Tr
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China’s epidemic of drug-resistant tuberculosis is being worsened by inadequate treatment in the public health system and hospitals, according to the first nation-wide study of the disease.
One third of new cases and one half of people with previously treated TB in 2007 had a form of the disease that didn’t respond to medicine, according to research published in the New England Journal of Medicine today. At 5.7 percent, the presence of TB that was resistant to multiple therapies among new cases was almost twice the global average, the study said.