The standard treatment for tuberculosis typically involves a 6-month regimen based on rifampin, but the efficacy of shorter initial treatment strategies remains uncertain.

In a recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, in an adaptive, open-label, noninferiority trial, participants with rifampin-susceptible pulmonary tuberculosis were randomized to receive either standard treatment or an 8-week regimen followed by extended treatment and monitoring for relapse. The study evaluated four strategy groups, focusing on initial regimens of rifampin-linezolid and bedaquiline-linezolid. Results showed that while the bedaquiline-linezolid strategy was noninferior to standard treatment, the rifampin-linezolid strategy did not meet noninferiority criteria. Additionally, the bedaquiline-linezolid strategy demonstrated a shorter treatment duration without significant safety concerns.1

Read more here.

References

  1. Paton, N. I., Cousins, C. S. G., Suresh, C., Burhan, E., Chew, K. L., Dalay, V. B., Lu, Q., Kusmiati, T., Balanag, V. M., Lee, S. L., Ruslami, R., Pokharkar, Y., Djaharuddin, I., Sugiri, J. J. R., Veto, R. S., Sekaggya-Wiltshire, C., Avihingsanon, A., Sarin, R., Papineni, P., . . . Crook, A. M. (2023). Treatment strategy for Rifampin-Susceptible tuberculosis. The New England Journal of Medicine, 388(10), 873–887. https://doi.org/10.1056/nejmoa2212537

Disclaimers

  • The material in these reviews is from various public open-access sources, meant for educational and informational purposes only
  • Any personal opinions expressed are those of only the author(s) and are not intended to represent the position of any organization(s)
  • No official support by any organization(s) has been provided or should be inferred