Many medical experts say South Africa’s clinical study, BEAT Tuberculosis, has transformed the global treatment of drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB). The clinical study started in Gqeberha in the Eastern Cape.
The aim was to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of a new shortened treatment regimen for DR-TB.
This week, the study’s findings were published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Doctor Francesca Conradie from the Clinical Health Research Unit at Wits University says, “In the olden days, when we treated patients with drug-resistant TB, we treated them for 18 months and the first six months of that treatment comprised of daily injections. Worst of all, that combination of medication only worked half the time. So 50 percent of patients were cured and in addition to that, about half of our patients went deaf and there were a lot of side effects, for example, nausea and vomiting. It wasn’t very successful. Now we are able to treat our patients for only six months and we see it in the numbers, too. This treatment cured just 90 percent of patients.”
PODCAST | There’s still room for improvement for TB treatment regimen: Dr Francesca Conradie
About the Author
