Likewise, the appearance of high rates of MDR-TB in New York city the early 1990s was associated with the dismantling of public health programmes by the Reagan administration.Paul Farmer points out that the more expensive a treatment, the harder it is for poor countries to get. Farmer sees this as verging on denial of basic human rights. Africa is low in quality of treatment partly  because many African cultures lack the concept of time essential to the schedule of administration.MDR-TB can develop in the course of the treatment of fully sensitive TB and this is always the result of patients missing doses or failing to complete a course of treatment. Thankfully, MDR-TB strains appear to be less fit and less transmissible. It has been known of many years that INH-resistant TB is less virulent in guinea pigs, and the epidemiological evidence is that MDR strains of TB do not dominate naturally. A study in Los Angeles found that only 6% of cases of MDR-TB were clustered. This should not be a cause for complacency: it must be remembered that MDR-TB has a mortality rate comparable to lung cancer. It must also be remembered that people who have weakened immune systems (because of diseases such as HIV or because of drugs) are more susceptible to catching TB. Children represent a susceptible population with increasing rates of MDR and XDR-TB. Since diagnosis in pediatric patients is difficult, large number of cases are not properly reported.
Implementation of DOTS-Plus requires the capacity to perform drug-susceptibility testing (not routinely available even in developed countries) and the availability of second-line agents, in addition to all the requirements for DOTS. DOTS-Plus is therefore much more resource-expensive than DOTS, and requires much greater commitment from countries wishing to implement it. Community engagement is a new approach that is being initiated alongside the DOTS individualized treatment. By creating a community for health workers to give support to patients and hospital faculty, the DOTS-plus model also incorporates psychological structural support treatments to help accommodate patients to ensure completion of treatment. Treatment with the new strategy is a total duration of 18–24 months.Monthly surveillance until cultures convert to negative is recommended for DOTS-Plus, but not for DOTS. If cultures are positive or symptoms do not resolve after three months of treatment, it is necessary to re-evaluate the patient for drug-resistant disease or nonadherence to drug regimen. If cultures do not convert to negative despite three months of therapy, some physicians may consider admitting the patient to hospital so as to closely monitor therapy. Extra-pulmonary tuberculosis
Tuberculosis not affecting the lungs is called extra-pulmonary tuberculosis. Disease of the central nervous system is specifically excluded from this classification. The United Kingdom and the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendation is 2HREZ/4HR; the US recommendation is 2HREZ/7HR.