**Part 1**

**Strategies for New Drug Discovering** 

**1** 

*Uganda* 

Claude Kirimuhuzya

*Faculty of Biomedical Sciences* 

*Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology* 

*Kampala International University-Western Campus* 

**Multi-Drug/Extensively Drug Resistant** 

Tuberculosis is the world's second deadliest infectious disease, with nearly 9.3 million new cases diagnosed in 2007. According to the WHO, an estimated 1.8 million people died from TB in 2007. One-third of the world's population is infected with the TB bacillus and current treatment takes 6–9 months. The current TB vaccine, Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG), developed almost 90 years ago, reduces the risk of severe forms of TB in early childhood but is not very effective in preventing pulmonary TB in adolescents and adults — the populations with the highest rates of TB disease. TB is changing and evolving, making new vaccines more crucial for controlling the pandemic. Tuberculosis is now the leading cause of death for people living with HIV/AIDS, particularly in Africa. Multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) and extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB) are hampering treatment and control efforts. New control measures, diagnostic tools and guidelines for treatment as well as development of new drugs and vaccines have been made a priority and the battle is now raging to restore the grip on the magement and control of MDR/XDR TB. Winning the battle against tuberculosis will depend on the outcomes of the extensive research that is on going to produce new, more effective and fast acting diagnostic tools, drugs and vaccines.

Drug-resistant TB is a result of mycobacterial strains that do not respond to drug treatment. Drug resistance has in the recent past become a serious global public health problem especially in the populations of the poor countries of the world. Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) refers to organisms that are resistant to at least two of the first-line drugs, isoniazid (INH) and rifampin, (RIF). In recent years, the world has seen a rapidly emerging epidemic of drug-resistant TB or multi drug-resistant (MDR-TB) and/or extensively drug-resistant XDR-TB ), which is highly lethal and extremely expensive leave alone being complicated to treat. Extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) is a type of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) that is resistant to two of the first-line drugs -

**1. Introduction 1.1 Background** 

**1.2 Drug-resistant TB** 

**Tuberculosis (Mdr/Xdr-Tb): Renewed** 

**Global Battle Against Tuberculosis?** 
