Bangladesh raises new hope for MDR-TB treatment

Preliminary results of a new research in Africa have reinforced what Bangladesh had indicated five years ago-- the long painful treatment of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) can be shortened.

MDR-TB is known to be the dangerous form of this infectious disease and treating it is comparatively difficult. The expensive treatment takes two years, compared with six to nine months for general TB.

TB is fully curable if properly treated. But in case of the MDR-TB, which is the outcome of mismanagement of TB treatment, the cure rate is 50 percent.

Bangladesh earlier showed that using a combination of available drugs in different doses can reduce the treatment course to nine months.   

A new study conducted in nine French-speaking African countries also showed similar results. The study was presented at a press briefing here on Thursday in the ongoing 46th Union World Conference on Lung Health.  

“We are very confident with the result we got,” Dr Arnaud Trebucq, a lead investigator of this cohort study that followed treatment for nine-months, said.  

He said their study was inspired by Bangladesh’s result. “Bangladesh showed this excellent result earlier,” he said, adding that the African study was the first multi-country study on this treatment.  

Dr Trebucq said they did it to prove that the Bangladesh result could be equally effective in treating patients elsewhere, particularly in countries with high rates of TB-HIV co-infection.  

Among a cohort of 507 adult patients in those countries, 80.9 percent had responded positively to the treatment, 7.7 percent died, 6.5 percent were lost to follow-up and 4.9 percent were treatment failures.  

“We are very hopeful that we’ll be able to offer solution for the MDR-TB,” he said. It would not take long “since we don’t need to wait for a new drug”, he added.  

“We are using old drugs with a combination and in different doses.” The complete results of the study including the relapse rate will come out by June 2017.

Dr Trebucq said the relapse rate was “very low” in Bangladesh – that means the National TB Programme could start the shorter version of treatment.  

But, Senior Vice-President for Research and Development of the Union Dr ID Rusen said most countries change the treatment regime when it is globally accepted.  

“WHO is analysing the study results,” he said, as Bangladesh follows only the WHO-set guidelines.  

They, however, said the focus must be on how to prevent drug-resistant TB.  

“We have to treat TB correctly at the beginning,” Dr Rusen said.  

TB is one of the oldest diseases to infect humans and now it ranks alongside HIV/AIDS as the top infectious killer worldwide.

The WHO says MDR-TB comprises three percent of new TB cases globally. In 2014, they estimated 480,000 such cases.

Ministers, government officials, NGOs, health experts, and campaigners have gathered in Cape Town for the lung health conference that focused beyond 2015 as the new sustainable development goals have set the ‘end TB’ target by 2030.

The main conference sessions will begin on Friday.