TB treatment can be cut to two months for some, finds landmark study
Some cases of 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. This is according to early findings from the landmark TRUNCATE TB trial presented at 2022 Union World Conference on Lung Health.
Nick Paton, a professor of Infectious Diseases at the National University of Singapore and the chief investigator of the TRUNCATE trial, explains that the standard six-month treatment for drug-susceptible TB is actually overtreating a lot of people who have the disease. The reason for the six-month mark for TB treatment is that a minority of TB patients need the long treatment regimen to avoid relapse, but the majority would be cured before the six-month mark.
Essentially, it’s a blunt, but generally, effective instrument used to protect a minority of TB patients.
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