TY - JOUR T1 - Outbreak of pre- and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis in northern italy: urgency of cross-border, multidimensional, surveillance systems JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J DO - 10.1183/13993003.00839-2021 SP - 2100839 AU - Simone Villa AU - Elisa Tagliani AU - Emanuele Borroni AU - Paola Francesca Castellotti AU - Maurizio Ferrarese AU - Arash Ghodousi AU - Anna Lamberti AU - Sabrina Senatore AU - Marino Faccini AU - Daniela Maria Cirillo AU - Luigi Ruffo Codecasa Y1 - 2021/01/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/early/2021/05/28/13993003.00839-2021.abstract N2 - Multidrug-resistant (MDR) and extensively drug-resistant (XDR) tuberculosis (TB) is one major public health threat because of reduced treatment options available and the poor patients’ outcome. New antimicrobials and regimens have been developed in recent years, but their effectiveness has been hampered by the rise and spread of drug-resistant strains. Whole genome sequencing (WGS) has emerged as a tool able to revolutionize TB surveillance and clinical management of TB. This approach is now widely used by public health agencies in detecting outbreaks and transmission chains, thus supporting the formulation of evidence-based health policies. Moreover, WGS can predict the drug-susceptibility profile of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) strains, often in combination with phenotypic antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) and minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) determination for the optimal clinical management of drug-resistant TB [1].FootnotesThis manuscript has recently been accepted for publication in the European Respiratory Journal. It is published here in its accepted form prior to copyediting and typesetting by our production team. After these production processes are complete and the authors have approved the resulting proofs, the article will move to the latest issue of the ERJ online. Please open or download the PDF to view this article.Conflict of interest: Dr. Villa has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Dr. Tagliani has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Dr. Borroni has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Dr. Castellotti has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Dr. Ferrarese has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Dr. Ghodousi has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Dr. Lamberti has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Dr. Senatore has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Dr. Faccini has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Dr. Cirillo has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Dr. Codecasa has nothing to disclose. ER -