Treating drug-resistant tuberculosis in an era of shorter regimens: Insights from rural South Africa

CONCLUSION: In a rural context, treating DR-TB amid limited resources and a high burden of HIV co-infection, we found that after considering controls, a short regimen was no different to a longer regimen in terms of success or mortality. Therefore, by alleviating burdens on multiple stakeholders, a short regimen is likely to be favourable for rural patients, clinicians, and healthcare systems. Besides other previously described correlates of outcomes, HIV viraemia emerged as a novel marker for reliably predicting poor outcomes in DR-TB with HIV co-infection, and a pragmatic target for intervention.PMID:38525642 | DOI:10.7196/SAMJ.2023.v113i11.497

Source: South African Medical Journal - March 25, 2024 Category: African Health Authors: J-D K Lotz J Porter H Conradie T Boyles B Gaunt S Dimanda D Cort Source Type: research