**1. Introduction**

Tuberculosis (TB) is a chronic infectious and zoonotic disease caused by the *Mycobacterium tuberculosis* (*Mtb*) complex. It is responsible for a lung infection (pulmonary TB) and other body parts (extrapulmonary TB) [1, 2]. TB is the second cause of death next to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. TB is a global public health disaster since 1993 at a time of expected 7–8 million cases and 1.3–1.6 million deaths occurred yearly. In 2010, 8.8 million new cases of TB and 1.1 million deaths from TB, and 0.35 million deaths from that HIV-allied TB and worsen due to the maturity of anti-TB drug resistance (DR) [3]. The emergence of resistance against anti-TB drugs is a barrier to the success of TB treatment. Inadequate TB treatment is responsible for the incident of DR-TB [4]. According to the World health organization (WHO) report, TB has spread to every area of the world. As much as one-third of the world's population is presently infected, more than any other infectious microbial disease [5]. These numbers however are only a partial

representation of the world TB threat. It was predictable that nearly 1 billion more people will be infected with TB in the coming 20 years. However, the number of new TB cases is still growing slowly, 95% occur in developing nations every year, and about one million young women per year are offended with this infectious disease in the developing world. The occurrence of TB is associated with a dense population, deprived sanitation, and, poor diet [6]. Directly observed treatment, short-course (DOTS), is the effective way of the control of TB. The three main anti-TB drugs, isoniazid (INH), rifampicin (RIF), pyrazinamide (PZA) are used. These drugs are hepatotoxic and may cause drug-related hepatitis. Despite the success of the DOTS therapy, the appearance of MDR-TB strains, persistently isolated from the sputum of pateints, darkens the future [7]. The expansion in TB incidence during current years is primarily due to the incidence of TB in synergy with the HIV pandemic, which increases the risk of growing the new TB cases were attributable to HIV co-infection, and as well as the emergence of MDR-TB strains [8, 9]. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to review the current status of antimycobacterial drugs.
