Drug Resistant Tuberculosis
If we play our cards right, extensively drug-resistant TB will be a thing of the past within 15 years - Francesca Conradie
HWN Suggests
The deadliest infectious disease is becoming drug-resistant
The length of the antibiotic regimens is the primary culprit for TB’s growing drug resistance. If you’ve ever forgotten to take the last few pills in a week-long antibiotic regimen, you can imagine how hard it is to get patients to complete a treatment that can last for years, especially in the countries with poor health care systems where TB is most prevalent. When people stop antibiotics early, they’re at a high risk of developing drug resistance and then passing that resistance on to others. Even worse, these drugs come with brutal side effects that include serious liver and kidney damage, and, for multidrug-resistant TB, half of patients will lose their hearing. It’s not all bad…
Articles of Interest
A New Dose of Hope in the Battle With Tuberculosis
The approval of pretomanid hinged on results from the Nix-TB trial, which included clinical trials at three sites in South Africa, involving 109 patients with highly resistant tuberculosis. The cure rate was 89%. “Without a doubt, this marks a watershed in our treatment of drug-resistant TB,” said Francesca Conradie, a researcher at the University of Witwatersrand who served as chief investigator in the trials. “If we play our cards right, extensively drug-resistant TB will be a thing of the past within 15 years.”
New and better treatments for drug-resistant tuberculosis on the horizon
The old drugs – half a century old, in fact – are no longer adequate. The standard treatment is a course of antibiotics lasting for six months. With the best will in the world, it is not surprising if some people fail to complete it.
The remarkable story of hope: how attitudes to drug-resistant TB changed
The current standard treatment for drug-resistant TB is arduous. It can last for between nine and 24 months, and includes a painful daily injection for up to six months which can cause hearing loss and other serious side effects in up to 60% of patients. Even worse, standard treatment is only successful in about half of all cases.
