TB Treatment Can Be Cut to Two Months for Some - Study

According to early findings from the landmark TRUNCATE TB trial presented at the Union World Conference on Lung Health, some cases of tuberculosis (TB) can be successfully treated in as little as two months - a third of the current standard of six months in South Africa and most other countries, Elri Voigt writes for Spotlight.

Study participants were monitored regularly through follow-up visits, which included TB symptom screening once a month and sputum smear tests every one to three months. The TRUNCATE trial set out to see if a two-month (eight weeks) novel combination of TB regimens would be feasible when compared to the standard six-month (24 weeks) treatment regimen.

"The core [of the strategy] is it's a very short period of initial treatment, plus you then do the monitoring and pick up people [who relapsed] early," Nick Paton, a professor of Infectious Diseases at the National University of Singapore and the chief investigator of the TRUNCATE trial, said.