TB Treatment Time Significantly Reduced by New Regimen, Says CDC

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) officials have said that a new regimen for treatment of latent tuberculosis significantly reduces the duration of the same. Latent tuberculosis is a condition where the patients do have TB, but are not capable of passing on the infection to other people. "New, simpler ways to prevent TB disease are urgently needed, and this breakthrough represents one of the biggest developments in TB treatment in decades," CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden said, in a statement.

Conventional treatment for latent TB included taking a special pill called isoniazid once daily for a period of nine months. However in a new federal trial, 8,000 people with latent TB in the United States, Canada, Brazil and Spain were treated with either 300 milligrams of isoniazid once daily for nine months or 900-milligram dose of isoniazid and a 900 milligram dose of rifapentine.

The best thing was that they needed to take the pills just once a week and not on a daily basis. Around 15 cases of TB developed in people on the standard treatment, compared with seven cases in people on the new treatment.

The researchers said follow-up studies were needed to assess the efficacy of the new regimen.



Source-Medindia