A research led by the University of Oxford, in England, with the participation of Fiocruz and the Adolfo Lutz Institute, sequenced the tuberculosis genome.
More than 15,000 samples of the bacteria that causes the disease were collected and the result showed that more than half of the strains are resistant to at least one of the drugs available for treatment.
THE CNN Radio the infectious disease specialist and Oxford researcher, Ana Luíza Gibertoni, said that the study “brought important results”, which serve to “strategy for the control of tuberculosis in the world.”
Before the coronavirus pandemic, she points out, the disease was always “the number 1 infectious agent” that kills the most in the world, with 1.5 million victims every year.
“Diagnosis is difficult and requires a complex laboratory network,” he said.
According to Ana Luísa, the research “seeks to use genomic sequencing technology to identify the catalog of mutations and the effect of each drug against them.”
“This increases the speed for the response of each country, their health systems and doctors have accurate information for the best drug combination”, he added.
The researcher believes that, in theory, every positive diagnosis of tuberculosis should have a genomic test to find out whether or not it is resistant to medication.
With each sample, the DNA is sequenced and, after hours, a report is released and sent directly to the doctors.
There are elements, as Ana Luísa explained, that favor the emergence of drug resistance.
Among them are people who do not complete treatment – which lasts for at least 6 months – and people infected with HIV who do not have their condition under control, and who are more sensitive.
*With production by Isabel Campos
Source: CNN Brasil
