New TB treatment breakthroughs must reach those in-need without delay

Shobha Shukla – CNS
Recently, results of a large-scale phase-3 study of a potentially game-changing TB treatment therapy were announced that give us enormous hope that shorter, all-oral (no injectables), more effective and less toxic treatments will reach those in-need globally without any delay. Earlier, treatment for drug-resistant forms of TB lasted for 20 to 24 months duration or more, and treatment success rate hovered around 50% or less, with very high rates of drug toxicities and side effects. But this new six months therapy (of BPaL - Bedaquiline, Pretomanid and Linezolid) shows that treatment success rate can be over 90%. With less than 100 months left to end TB globally (and less than 40 months left to end TB in India), there is no doubt that we need more effective and less toxic treatments to cure TB, which continues to be among the top deadly infectious diseases today. It is therefore imperative that game-changing scientific breakthroughs must translate into public health gains in terms of reduced human suffering and deaths related to TB.   (To be contd)