Trial Finds Short, Effective and Safe Drug-Resistant TB Treatment

TB-PRACTECAL, a global clinical trial led by Doctors Without Borders (MSF), has found that a new all-oral six-month treatment regimen is safer and more effective at treating rifampicin-resistant tuberculosis (RR-TB) than the currently accepted standard of care.

It is the first-ever multi-country, randomised, controlled clinical trial to report on the efficacy and safety of a six-month, all-oral regimen for RR-TB. The trial took place in seven sites across Belarus, South Africa and Uzbekistan.

MSF says that these results signal the start of a new chapter for people with drug-resistant (DR)-TB who currently face lengthy treatment regimens of up to 20 months that can include painful injections and up to 20 pills a day that can cause severe side-effects.

This treatment will give hope to patients for the future of DR-TB treatment who were complaining about difficulty in adhering to treatment while little progress was being made to find kinder treatments, according to Bern-Thomas Nyang'wa, MSF Medical Director and Chief Investigator of the trial.

"It has been an honour to serve our communities through this research. For participants, it has been easier to comply with the treatment and complete this shorter regimen which uses fewer tablets," says Nosipho Ngubane, Principal Investigator at King DinuZulu Hospital, South Africa.