Tuberculosis Basics: Acronyms You Need to Know

by Alanna Shaikh · 2009-08-13 10:12:00 UTC
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(photo credit: Laineys Repertoire)

Lately, in my non-Change.org job, I've been doing a lot of work on tuberculosis infection control. I've learned some really interesting things in the process. Did you know that sunshine (well, UV rays in general) kills TB bacteria? I've also had to wade through a near-impenetrable thicket of acronyms.

Now that I hacked my way through the alphabet jungle, I thought I'd leave a path for the next person. Here's the list of acronyms I saw most often:

DST - Drug sensitivity testing. This is a process where you test tuberculosis bacteria to see what drugs kill it. You can use DST to personalize a treatment regimen for a person infected with TB, and minimize the chances of resistance.

GLCI - Green Light Committee Initiative. The Green Light Committee Initiative gives grants for pilot programs to treat MDR and XDR tuberculosis.

MDR TB - Multiple drug resistant tuberculosis. Tuberculosis that is resistant to at least isoniazid and rifampicin, the two most powerful anti-TB drugs. (That's the WHO definition)

NRL - National reference laboratory. A national reference laboratory is a highly-trained lab that checks the quality of other labs in a country. National reference laboratories are important to maintaining the quality of TB diagnosis in a country.

SLD - Second line drugs. These are the drugs you try when the usual regime of tuberculosis drugs isn't working - in other words, these are the drugs that treat MDR TB.

SNRL - Supranational Reference Laboratory. SNRLs are major reference laboratories - there are only a handful in the world. They check and maintain the quality of the national reference laboratories.

XDR TB - Extensively Drug Resistant Tuberculosis. Tuberculosis that has become resistant to at least rifampicin and isoniazid, as well as to any member of the quinolone family and at least one of the following second-line anti-TB injectable drugs: kanamycin, capreomycin, or amikacin. (That's the exact wording of the WHO definition)

There are a lot more acronyms in tuberculosis literature. Trust me on this. But these are the ones you really need to read (or write) about TB without a headache.

Alanna Shaikh
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