Administration issues plan to combat multidrug-resistant TB

The White House yesterday released a federal plan to improve domestic and international capacity and collaboration to combat multidrug-resistant tuberculosis. About 480,000 people worldwide develop multidrug-resistant TB each year, including about 100 in the U.S., according to a White House factsheet. “Although the vast majority of individuals with TB and MDR-TB live outside the United States, it is critical that the nation maintain and expand its global efforts to fight the disease, to save the lives of those afflicted with TB, and to prevent the spread of MDR-TB both in the United States and around the world,” the report states.