Tuberculosis is a stubborn infection that takes takes six months to treat effectively. As a result, this is the source of many problems in developing countries and when dealing with the homeless. However, doctors from London's St George's Medical School will test a combination of two antibiotics on 1,200 patients in four African countries. These two antobiotics, rifapentine and moxifloxacin, are already in use for this purpose, but are used separately.
This trial, which will start in July, is aimed to both test the effectiveness and safety of the drug combination and to see if a four-month course of treatment, with doses given twice a week, is as good as a six-month course in which treatment is given just once a week.
It will take place in Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa.
"The development of a new anti-tuberculosis drug could take 15 years and the cost estimated by the Stop TB partnership is almost $5 billion," said Amina Jindani of St George's Hospital, who is co-ordinating the study. "By testing a new combination of drugs we already use we can cut that development time by 10 years at a far lower cost."
"TB treatment just like treatment for chronic diseases tends to be difficult for both the patient and the health system given the fact that when patients feel better they confuse better for cure and abandon their treatment," said Stanley Mungofa, the Head of the Harare City Health Department, Harare, Zimbabwe, who will be involved in the trial. "If treatment becomes shorter there is a better chance of them finishing their medication and being cured."
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It's good to hear, both literally and metaphorically, that new treatments have been developed for TB.
One of the original anti-TB drugs, streptomycin, caused significant hearing loss for many people. One might think of hearing loss as an acceptable tradeoff for surviving tuberculosis, except that streptomycin was also prescribed for those who had far less significant upper respiratory infections. I was one of those patients. I lost a large part of my hearing when I was given an injection of streptomycin as a 2 1/2 year old, on the advice of our family doctor.
That experience has made my family very cautious about doing our own due diligence when it comes to medications and side effects, rather than simply trusting the advice of any single medical professional.