The United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Control and Prevention of Tuberculosis project is a five year effort, which runs from October, 2011 to October, 2016, to reduce the incidence and mortality of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) in Burma, China and Thailand.

Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), a form of tuberculosis resistant to two or more of the primary TB drugs, is an issue of growing public health concern because treatment takes at least 20 months with medicines that are more costly, less effective and poorly tolerated by patients. Diagnosis alone often requires several months, during which time a patient may spread their infection to others.