An Epidemic of Drug Resistance: Tuberculosis in the Twenty-First Century

With an estimated two billion people being carriers of latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI), the gains achieved by increasing access to diagnostics and treatment, although substantial, have had a modest impact on the global burden of tuberculosis (TB). At the same time, increased access to treatment has had the unintended consequence that drug-resistant TB (DR-TB) has increased dramatically. Earlier TB control strategies strongly emphasizing medical treatment have failed to address these issues effectively. The current strategy to eliminate TB by 2050 is accompanied by a call for a paradigm shift, emphasizing patient rights and equity more. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Odisha, India, and global-level TB conferences, this paper contrasts the dynamics of global health policy and strategy-making with the lived realities of patients with DR-TB. A more thorough rethinking of the biosocial dynamics that impact the pathogenic disease is required to develop a comprehensive paradigm shift for TB control in the twenty-first century.