Home / Health / New TB drugs cut treatment time to six months.
New TB drugs cut treatment time to six months.
13 Feb
Summary
- New drug regimens reduce resistant TB treatment to six months.
- Oral BPaL and BPaLM therapies are cost-effective for health programs.
- Faster diagnosis via molecular tests enables quicker treatment.
Shorter treatment regimens for drug-resistant tuberculosis are proving effective, reducing illness duration, side effects, and deaths while also being cost-effective. These findings come from a study by researchers at the ICMR-National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis.
India, which reported nearly 64,000 multi-drug-resistant TB cases in 2023, introduced these shorter regimens in 2024. The new therapies have cut treatment duration from 18 or nine months down to six months. They also eliminate the need for injectable drugs, which often caused severe side effects like hearing loss and kidney damage.
The BPaL regimen, a combination of three oral drugs, is projected to save Rs 379 per patient for every healthy life-year added. The BPaLM regimen, which includes an additional drug, incurs a slightly higher cost of Rs 37 per patient for each additional healthy life-year.
These advancements mean reduced patient travel to health facilities and quicker return to the workforce. The oral nature of the treatment spares patients from debilitating injections, and the shorter duration aids in faster societal re-integration, mitigating TB-related stigma.
