Isoniazid, The Frontline of Resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Abstract

Tuberculosis is an ancient disease that has held close association with humans for millennia. Through persistence, this remarkably successful organism has managed to infect an estimated third of the world's population. Declining rates of tuberculosis in developed nations have masked an emerging epidemic of drug resistant cases that have been reported in almost every country under scrutiny. The recent completion of the genome sequence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis has mandated more efficient control and management of this disease. The momentum for this public health imperative will come from information gleaned from advances in genomics and related technologies towards deciphering molecular mechanisms of mycobacterial drug resistance.

Keywords

• tuberculosis
• isoniazid
• bacterial resistance
• mycobacterium tuberculosis