The Cable
New research has found that an increasing incidence of drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) cases are beginning to manifest in Nigeria.
The new study, which was published recently on Nature, discovered the presence of mutations that confer resistance to treatment in two tuberculosis patients from samples collected in 2019 but re-investigated using the latest molecular-based technology.
The research was carried out by the African Centre of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases (ACEGID), Redeemer’s University, Osun state, in collaboration with the Centre for Tuberculosis Research (CTBR), Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR), Lagos state.
Tuberculosis remains the leading cause of death from a bacterial infectious disease, especially in low-income countries such as Nigeria. It can be resistant to both first and second-line drugs, resulting in the extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR TB),
The life-threatening infection is caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, a globally distributed bacterium grouped into nine lineages, including the Beijing lineage.
This lineage, previously limited to Eurasia, has since spread across the world — including Nigeria — due to human migration and also led to the difficulty in treating drug-resistant TB.
