Strategies to Enhance Diagnostic Capabilities for the New Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis (DR-TB) Drugs

The global burden of drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) continues to challenge healthcare systems worldwide. There is a critical need to tackle DR-TB by enhancing diagnostics and drug susceptibility testing (DST) capabilities, particularly for emerging DR-TB drugs. This endeavor is crucial to optim...

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Main Authors: Antonia Morita Iswari Saktiawati, Anca Vasiliu, Francesca Saluzzo, Onno W. Akkerman
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2024-11-01
Series:Pathogens
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Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0817/13/12/1045
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author Antonia Morita Iswari Saktiawati
Anca Vasiliu
Francesca Saluzzo
Onno W. Akkerman
author_facet Antonia Morita Iswari Saktiawati
Anca Vasiliu
Francesca Saluzzo
Onno W. Akkerman
author_sort Antonia Morita Iswari Saktiawati
collection DOAJ
description The global burden of drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) continues to challenge healthcare systems worldwide. There is a critical need to tackle DR-TB by enhancing diagnostics and drug susceptibility testing (DST) capabilities, particularly for emerging DR-TB drugs. This endeavor is crucial to optimize the efficacy of new therapeutic regimens and prevent the resistance and overuse of these invaluable weapons. Despite this urgency, there remains a lack of comprehensive review of public health measures aimed at improving the diagnostics and DST capabilities. In this review, we outline strategies to enhance the capabilities, especially tailored to address the challenges posed by resistance to new DR-TB drugs. We discuss the current landscape of DR-TB drugs, existing diagnostic and susceptibility testing methods, and notable gaps and challenges in these methods and explore strategies for ensuring fair access to DST while narrowing these disparities. The strategies include public health interventions aimed at strengthening laboratory infrastructure, workforce training, and quality assurance programs, technology transfer initiatives, involving drug developers in the DST development, establishing national or regional referral hubs, fostering collaboration and resources pooling with other infection control efforts, extending testing access in underserved areas through public–private partnerships, advocating for lowering costs or loans at low interest, remote technical support, and implementing mandatory molecular surveillance monitoring. This review underscores the urgent need to enhance DST capacities for new DR-TB drugs and identifies opportunities for innovation and improvement. Assessing the extent of the global health impact of these measures is crucial to ensure their effectiveness in combating DR-TB.
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spelling doaj-art-cc1e5dfeb6f6497baf257e4ac04aee532025-08-20T02:01:20ZengMDPI AGPathogens2076-08172024-11-011312104510.3390/pathogens13121045Strategies to Enhance Diagnostic Capabilities for the New Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis (DR-TB) DrugsAntonia Morita Iswari Saktiawati0Anca Vasiliu1Francesca Saluzzo2Onno W. Akkerman3Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Public Health, and Nursing, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta 55584, IndonesiaGlobal TB Program, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USAIRCCS San Raffaele Scientific Institute, 20132 Milan, ItalyDepartment of Pulmonary Diseases and Tuberculosis, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, 9713 GZ Groningen, The NetherlandsThe global burden of drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) continues to challenge healthcare systems worldwide. There is a critical need to tackle DR-TB by enhancing diagnostics and drug susceptibility testing (DST) capabilities, particularly for emerging DR-TB drugs. This endeavor is crucial to optimize the efficacy of new therapeutic regimens and prevent the resistance and overuse of these invaluable weapons. Despite this urgency, there remains a lack of comprehensive review of public health measures aimed at improving the diagnostics and DST capabilities. In this review, we outline strategies to enhance the capabilities, especially tailored to address the challenges posed by resistance to new DR-TB drugs. We discuss the current landscape of DR-TB drugs, existing diagnostic and susceptibility testing methods, and notable gaps and challenges in these methods and explore strategies for ensuring fair access to DST while narrowing these disparities. The strategies include public health interventions aimed at strengthening laboratory infrastructure, workforce training, and quality assurance programs, technology transfer initiatives, involving drug developers in the DST development, establishing national or regional referral hubs, fostering collaboration and resources pooling with other infection control efforts, extending testing access in underserved areas through public–private partnerships, advocating for lowering costs or loans at low interest, remote technical support, and implementing mandatory molecular surveillance monitoring. This review underscores the urgent need to enhance DST capacities for new DR-TB drugs and identifies opportunities for innovation and improvement. Assessing the extent of the global health impact of these measures is crucial to ensure their effectiveness in combating DR-TB.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0817/13/12/1045diagnosisdrug resistancetuberculosismicrobial sensitivity testsantitubercular agentsglobal health
spellingShingle Antonia Morita Iswari Saktiawati
Anca Vasiliu
Francesca Saluzzo
Onno W. Akkerman
Strategies to Enhance Diagnostic Capabilities for the New Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis (DR-TB) Drugs
Pathogens
diagnosis
drug resistance
tuberculosis
microbial sensitivity tests
antitubercular agents
global health
title Strategies to Enhance Diagnostic Capabilities for the New Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis (DR-TB) Drugs
title_full Strategies to Enhance Diagnostic Capabilities for the New Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis (DR-TB) Drugs
title_fullStr Strategies to Enhance Diagnostic Capabilities for the New Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis (DR-TB) Drugs
title_full_unstemmed Strategies to Enhance Diagnostic Capabilities for the New Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis (DR-TB) Drugs
title_short Strategies to Enhance Diagnostic Capabilities for the New Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis (DR-TB) Drugs
title_sort strategies to enhance diagnostic capabilities for the new drug resistant tuberculosis dr tb drugs
topic diagnosis
drug resistance
tuberculosis
microbial sensitivity tests
antitubercular agents
global health
url https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0817/13/12/1045
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