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<p>A course of treatment for uncomplicated <a href="/en/diseases/tuberculosis">tuberculosis</a> (TB) takes a minimum of six months. When patients are resistant to the two most powerful first-line antibiotics (isoniazid and rifampicin), they are considered to have multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB).</p>
<p>MDR-TB is not impossible to treat, but the drug regimen is arduous, taking up to two years and causing many side effects.</p>
<p>Extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) is identified when patients show resistance to the second-line drugs administered for MDR-TB. The treatment options for XDR-TB are very limited. Two new drugs &ndash; bedaquiline and delamanid &ndash; have recently become available to some patients who have no other treatment options left.</p>
<p>In 2015 MSF treated 18,100 patients for TB, of whom 2,000 for MDR-TB.</p>
<p>For more information, please see <a href="/en/diseases/tuberculosis">tuberculosis</a>.</p>