Breakthrough, Speedier Tuberculosis Treatment Endorsed by WHO but Carries Risks for Some

The World Health Organization (WHO) has endorsed the advancement of a new plan that could cut the treatment time for some super-bug tuberculosis patients by more than half.

The new treatment is being heralded as cutting treatment speeds from two years to as little as nine to 12 months.

Treatments Should be Available to Many

Mario Raviglione, head of the WHO's global TB program, expressed optimism that the shorter treatment options would be available to many patients, as they run at a cost of less than $1,000 per patient in developing countries.

"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," Raviglione added in a statement.

Based in data obtained by the WHO in 2014, about five percent of TB cases worldwide have a multidrug-resistant disease, which means that there are 480,000 people affected and 19,000 deaths per year. MDR-TB stands for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis caused by TB bacteria that are resistant to isoniazid and rifampicin, two of the most effective drugs known to treat the disease.

Currently, about half of patients fail to get better with present treatment plans for MDR-TB. Health experts attribute such an alarming rate to the fact many patients give up on the long regime for reasons ranging from the side-effects of the medicine to the high costs for it.

Some Risks Involved

Raviglione admitted the new treatments carry significant risks for some, namely patients whose MDR-TB is resistant to the most important drugs, fluoroquinolones, and injectable. By following the new regime, these patients could develop extensively drug-resistant TB or XDR-TB.

The WHO recommends a molecular diagnostic test called MTBDRsl to determine which patients are suitable for the shorter treatments. Current tests deliver results in about three months, but this one allows results to be available in as little as 24 hours.