Anyone can get TB. However, there are some people who are at an increased risk of getting infected with TB. This includes people who:

• have lived, worked or traveled in countries where TB is prevalent
• have been in close contact with a person with active TB (eg., family member or someone who shares a living)
• have HIV or AIDS
• have weakened immune systems (those with a serious illness or have had an organ transplant)
• live in residential long-term care (eg., senior citizens)
• live in overcrowded housing
• are incarcerated or have been incarcerated in a correctional facility (prison)
• are homeless
• have had active TB
• have had tuberculosis and did not receive adequate treatment
• live in a community where the rate of latent TB infection or active TB disease is high
• working with the aforementioned groups (eg., health professionals and correctional officers).

In addition to becoming infected with Tuberculosis, those individuals are also at an increased risk of contracting drug-resistant TB.

What is the drug-resistant TB?

The drug-resistant TB is caused by TB germs which the usual drugs against tuberculosis are unable to kill. When TB does not respond to usual medications, the germ is called "drug resistant". In simple terms, this means that it becomes very difficult to treat individuals infected with drug-resistant TB. They often need a combination of drugs over a longer period of time to cure the infection compared to people who have the ‘ordinary’ TB.

Sometimes tuberculosis is resistant to the two main anti-TB drugs, namely isoniazid and rifampin. This is called multidrug-resistant TB or MDR-TB. Sometimes tuberculosis is resistant to many of the conventional anti-tuberculosis drugs (isoniazid, rifampin, fluoroquinolones) and at least one of three injectable drugs (capreomycin, kanamycin and amikacin). This is known as XDR-TB or XDR-TB.

MDR-TB and XDR-TB are very serious diseases. They can make you very sick and even be fatal. They are much more difficult to treat than ordinary TB.

As mentioned above, someone infected with drug-resistant TB needs extensive treatment. Indeed, a person with drug-resistant TB:

needs medication for longer than other patients suffering from tuberculosis

may need to be hospitalized (in isolation - that is away from others), during part of his treatment

needs more powerful drugs than other patients with tuberculosis.

These more powerful drugs:

• are not as effective as the usual anti-tuberculosis drugs
• cause more side effects, which may include skin changes and damage to the liver.
• are more expensive than regular medications, although they are made freely available in certain developed countries

If you have drug-resistant TB, you could pass it on to others and make them very sick. Therefore, you must immediately receive special medical treatment. The initial infection with TB may be asymptomatic. Therefore, the individual infected with the drug-resistant TB may infect lots of people with the resistant strain of the germ before actually being diagnosed.

How do you catch the drug-resistant TB?

You can get the drug-resistant TB if you:

• breathe in the germs from an ill person with drug-resistant TB;
• have had tuberculosis, but did not take all your medications. In this case, your ordinary TB could become drug-resistant TB;
• have had active TB disease and have been treated, but have become infected again;
• have a weakened immune system.