Twelve pills instead of 270. Once a week instead of once a day. Three months instead of nine. These are the promising new guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to treat tuberculosis. The results of a recent clinical trial have demonstrated that this shorter regimen, consisting of a weekly dose of the anti-TB drugs rifapentine and isoniazid, is as effective as the conventional daily regimen that drags on every day for nine months.
CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden remarked that the new treatment regimen could be especially useful in lowering the risk already small that latent TB, which is present in about 4 percent of the U.S. population, will progress to active TB. The country s number of active TB cases fell to an all-time low of just over 11,000 in 2010; Dr. Frieden believes that the shorter treatment regimen could lower that number even further, given that many patients who begin the standard nine months of treatment fail to complete it.
ACSH's Dr. Ross, for his part, welcomes the news. However, he s concerned that even this shorter treatment which still requires the supervision of a health provider still won t reach many of the homeless and indigent patients who comprise the majority of the people in the U.S. infected with TB. While clearly the less extensive regimen will increase the likelihood of more people being treated, he also points out that this more efficient treatment schedule could most usefully be expanded to developing countries where TB is a serious public health concern. TB, he notes, is still responsible for the deaths of more than 1.5 million people a year worldwide, ranking among AIDS and malaria as the diseases with the highest tolls.
Making short work of TB
Twelve pills instead of 270. Once a week instead of once a day. Three months instead of nine. These are the promising new guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to treat tuberculosis.