New treatment for latent TB could help eradicate global epidemic

A less toxic drug has been discovered for latent TB to cut the treatment time from nine months to four.

Editorial Team | Published: August 3, 2018 9:18 am

Latent TB happens when a person has small numbers of TB bacteria within their body. They are kept under control by the body’s immune system. A person with latent TB does not have any symptoms because the bacterias are kept under control by the body’s immune system. A person affected with latent TB cannot pass the bacteria on to other people. One-quarter of the global population is infected with latent TB and 10 per cent of these will develop active TB. However, a new treatment for latent tuberculosis is set to tackle the global epidemic.

According to a study by Research-Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC), a shorter treatment was safer and more effective in children and adults compared to the current standard. In the New England Journal of Medicine, these findings were published.

Two studies were conducted, one in adults and the other in children and then the researchers have discovered a less toxic drug than the one in current use worldwide for latent TB and cut the treatment time from nine months to four. The long course of drugs currently used for latent TB patients, which can have toxic effects on the liver, many go untreated and some suffer harm.

According to the gurdian.com report, In addition to being a much shorter treatment, the rates of development of active TB were slightly lower with rifampin, indicating that it is at least as effective as the nine-month treatment of INH in preventing TB.

Dr. Menzies, who is a respirologist with the MUHC and a professor of Medicine, Epidemiology and Biostatistics at McGill University said,”This four-month therapy is a fundamental game-changer in TB prevention.” “The four-month treatment was as effective in preventing TB, safer and more acceptable. We believe this four-month rifampin treatment should replace the nine months on INH for most people who need therapy for latent TB.”

“These discoveries will fuel a new look at global practices,” says Dr. Menzies, who has acted as an advisor to the Public Health Agency of Canada, Citizenship and Immigration Canada, the Centres for Disease Control (CDC), and the World Health Organization (WHO) on TB. “We expect this discovery to have a substantial impact on TB, which remains the number one infectious disease killer globally, causing more deaths than AIDS, malaria, diarrhoeal diseases, or other tropical illnesses.”

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Published: August 3, 2018 9:18 am

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