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Three-drug regimen beats XDR-TB in first trial
Keith Alcorn, 2017-02-17 08:10:00
A regimen of three oral drugs given for six months was enough to clear XDR-TB in 29 of the first 31 patients to have completed the treatment course, Dr Francesca Conradie of Sizwe Tropical Disease Hospital, Johannesburg, told the 2017 Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI). If the results are replicated in a larger population, the findings could revolutionise the prospects for treating not just XDR-TB, but also the more severe cases of MDR-TB.
Extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) is a growing problem in countries with a high burden of multi-drug resistant TB, such as South Africa. XDR-TB is tuberculosis that is resistant to isoniazid and rifampicin, plus any fluoroquinolone and at least one of three injectable second-line drugs (i.e., amikacin, kanamycin, or capreomycin). MDR-TB is TB that is resistant to isoniazid and rifampicin.
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