The World Health Organisation on Thursday recommended a speedier, cheaper treatment plan for patients with superbug forms of tuberculosis (TB) — a change that should help cure thousands of the killer
The World Health Organisation on Thursday recommended a speedier, cheaper treatment plan for patients with superbug forms of tuberculosis (TB) — a change that should help cure thousands of the killer disease.
In what the WHO’s leading TB expert said was a critical step forward in tackling the “public health crisis” of multi drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), the Geneva-based health agency said the new treatment plan could now be completed in 9-12 months rather than the two years previously recommended.
The shorter treatment regimen also costs significantly less - at just under $1,000 per patient in developing countries, said Mario Raviglione, director of the WHO’s global TB program.
“The new WHO recommendations offer hope to hundreds of thousands of MDR-TB patients who can now benefit from a test that quickly identifies eligibility for the shorter regimen, and then complete treatment in half the time and at nearly half the cost,” he said in a statement.
Multi drug-resistant TB is caused by TB bacteria that are resistant to at least the two most effective drugs, isoniazid and rifampicin, and possibly others too. Based on figures from 2014, the latest year for which data are available, the WHO estimates that 5 percent of TB cases have multi drug-resistant disease. This translates into 480,000 cases, and 190,000 deaths each year.
Conventional treatment regimens for MDR-TB can take up to two years and have low cure rates — with 50 per cent of patients failing to get better.
