DRUG SENSITIVITY TESTING OF MYCOBACTERIUM TUBERCULOSIS : A NEGLECTED PROBLEM AT THE END OF 20TH CENTURY

Abstract

Tuberculosis remains one of the major health prob-lems in the would. With all the advancement in the diagnosis and treatment of this curable disease, the graph is on rise every year' . Strains of mycobacte-rium tuberculosis have acquired resistance to various drugs. Resistance to Rifampicin and isoniazid with or without resistance to other drugs, multiple drugs re-sistance (MDR) which makes treatable cases fatal'. The importance of early diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis cannot be overemphasized in order to reduce morbidity, mortality and spread of infection. Robert Kochs discovered the mammalian Tubercle bacilli in 1882.