RESEARCH ARTICLE


Extensively Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis (XDR-TB) - A Potential Threat in Ireland



Anne Marie Mc Laughlin1, *, Rory A O’Donnell1, Noel Gibbons2, Mary Scully3, Darina O’Flangan4, Joseph Keane1
1 Department of Respiratory Medicine, CREST Directorate, St James’ Hospital, Dublin 8, Ireland
2 Irish Mycobacteria Reference Laboratory St James Hospital, Dublin 8, Ireland
3 Department of Public Health Medicine, Population Division, Health Service Executive, Dr Steevens’ Hospital, Dublin 8, Ireland
4 Health Protection Surveillance Centre 25-27 Middle Gardiner St Dublin 1, Ireland


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Creative Commons License
2007 Bentham Science Publishers Ltd

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/), which permits unrestrictive use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Department of Respiratory Medicine, CREST Directorate, St James’ Hospi-tal, Dublin 8, Ireland; Tel: 353(1)4162194; Fax: 353(1)4103549; E-mail: annemmclaughlin@gmail.com


Abstract

We describe a case of a 25 year old female from Lithuania who presented with a productive cough. Chest radiograph demonstrated an infiltrate in the left upper lobe and a cavitating lesion in the right middle lobe. Sensitivity testing of her sputum led to a diagnosis of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB). This is the first case in Ireland and highlights the need for physicians to be aware of the possibility of XDR-TB. Moreover it underlines the need for im-provement in service provision in terms of a TB reference laboratory and TB clinics.