Doctors treating one of history's great killers will soon be working with new genetic tools to spot drug resistance and identify which form of the disease they've encountered.
Tuberculosis kills more people each year than any illness, other than COVID. Now, researchers based at England's Oxford University have developed the TB genome and these new tools.
"TB is a really good example of a globally important disease where its use is being focused on something that can translate into a lot of public utility and I think there's a lot more opportunity when it comes to that," said Dr. Shamin Islam, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Oishei Children's Hospital.
While the disease is treatable, diagnosis can be difficult if the doctor hasn't dealt with it before. The disease can be disguised as other ailments whose treatments are different, meaning the TB doesn't get treated.
TB cases in Erie County were up substantially last year and a latent form of the disease has been showing up in immigrants.
"It's a problem," said Islam. "I think it's where you're looking and, I think, looking from a Western New York perspective, where you do have immigrants," he said. "MDR, multi-drug resistant TB, I'm calling it MDR TB, is a issue, especially in certain parts of the world, mainly in Eastern Europe and Central Africa, although you can have cases in other places. It can be difficult to treat."
Islam is familiar with the Oxford University research and has treated tuberculosis in many nations. He said the research suggests this kind of genetic medicine may be the way of the future in treating many difficult diseases.
"These type of new diagnostics can help identify them much quicker and respond better," Islam said. "So I think it is something that has the potential to really improve general tuberculosis disease control at a global level or in places that have lower resources, again, if it's rolled out in a certain way."
