An international collaboration led by researchers in the US and South Africa announced the first genome sequence of an extensively drug resistant (XDR) strain of the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis, one linked to more than 50 deaths in a recent tuberculosis (TB) outbreak in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. As part of this work, genomes of multi-drug resistant (MDR) and drug sensitive isolates were also decoded. [click link for full article]
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