When people with infectious tuberculosis (TB) cough, sneeze or otherwise exhale droplets, they expose others to Mycobacterium tuberculosis. After a person is exposed, they can be infected with M. tuberculosis without having TB disease and without signs and symptoms. This is called latent TB infection (LTBI).
In EU, only 1 in every 3 MDR TB patients has a successful treatment outcome; more than half either die, fail treatment or default (stop taking treatment). XDR TB has even worse treatment outcomes: only 1 in 4 patients finishes treatment successfully.
ECDC promotes the performance of external quality assessment (EQA) schemes, in which laboratories are sent simulated clinical specimens or bacterial isolates for testing by routine or reference laboratory methods. EQA schemes, or laboratory proficiency testing, provide information about the accuracy of different characterisation and typing methods as well as antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) and the sensitivity of the methods in place to detect a certain pathogen or novel resistance patterns.