Health Market Science

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently released new recommendations for the use of a new latent tuberculosis treatment option. The new recommendations address how to administer a 12-dose regimen for TB preventive therapy that will shorten and simplify the course of treatment. What would normally take nine months to distribute, will now be complete in 12 weeks, the centers said.

Two clinical trials spurred the CDC to make its recommendations, which found a once a week regimen of the anti-TB drugs taken over a period of three months was equally effective at preventing TB disease as the self-administered nine-month daily regimen of a different drug commonly used. The new regimen reduces the number of doses required from 270 to 12.

“This regimen has the potential to be a game-changer in the United States when it comes to fighting TB,” said CDC Director Thomas R. Frieden, M.D., M.P.H. “It gives us a new, effective option that will reduce by two-thirds – from nine months to three months -- the length of time someone needs to take medicine to prevent latent TB infection from progressing to active TB disease.”

According to the CDC, latent TB infection occurs when a person has TB bacteria but shows no symptoms and therefore cannot transmit the bacteria to other people. If the bacteria becomes active, TB disease will develop causing the person to fall ill and become contagious to others. Not everyone with TB bacteria develops the disease, people with weakened immune systems are more susceptible.

The CDC reported the number of U.S. cases of active TB disease reached an all-time low of 11,182 in 2010. Currently, about 4 percent of the U.S. population has latent infections, or 11 million individuals.

The World Health Organization reported 8.8 million people worldwide caught contagious lung disease in 2010, and 1.4 million died from it. Tuberculosis develops in 5 to 10 percent of the people infected by TB bacteria typically after six to 18 months while the infection lies dormant. Some people are able to house the disease for decades, the AFP reported.