There is talk of a new test from Germany that can differentiate drug susceptible and drug resistant active TB, it is still being tested.
Normally to determine drug resistance you have to culture the specimen then present it to various drugs - its a long and costly process.
One problem is that those who are not responding to TB treatment are then classed as drug resistant, admitted to hospital and found to be XDR whilst spreading XDR-TB to others incl staff.
The big problem is that XDR-TB needs to be both prevented and diagnosed and isolated to stop transmission however none of this is happening sufficiently to prevent an epidemic.
