A three-drug regimen for treating drug-resistant TB strains cured 90% of patients and cut down treatment period from about 20 months to six months, a conference heard.
According to the 2020 WHO global report on TB, 206,030 people in 2019 had a severe form of TB called multidrug- or rifampicin-resistant TB, but only 38% were on treatment. In patients with multidrug-resistant TB, medicines such as isoniazid and rifampin do not work or have to be stopped because of side effects.
The study, conducted in three sites in South Africa, showed that about nine out of ten patients with severe form of TB treated with a six-month, all-oral regimen of pretomanid, bedaquiline and linezolid remained free of TB.
New England Journal of Medicine. Study Paper: