ABSTRACT

Tuberculosis (TB) is one of most prevailing diseases, responsible for the morbidity and mortality of a large number of populations worldwide. Traditionally, it has relied on a limited number of drugs such as isoniazid, rifampicin, ethambutol, streptomycin, ethionamide and pyrazinamide. However, many of these drugs have different disadvantages such as prolonged duration of treatment, host toxicity and ineffectiveness against resistant strains. This has motivated the search of newer drug molecules, capable of rapid mycobactericidal action with shortened duration of therapy, reduced toxicity and enhanced activity against multidrug resistant strains. These observations have been guiding for the currently used and newly developed anti-tubercular agents that possess potent antimicrobial activity and their side effects, activity against multi drug resistant Mycobacterium, and also in patients co-infected with HIV/AIDS.