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Better Control of TB Seen If A Faster Cure Is Found
The World Health Organization estimates that about one-third of all people are infected with bacteria that cause tuberculosis. Most times, the infection remains inactive. But each year about eight million people develop active cases of TB, usually in their
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. Two million people die
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it. The disease has
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with the spread of AIDS and drug—resistant forms of tuberculosis.
Current treatments take at least six months. Patients have to
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a combination of several antibiotic drugs daily. But many people stop
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they feel better. Doing that can
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to an infection that resists treatment. Public health experts agree that a faster-acting cure for tuberculosis would be more effective. Now a study estimates just how
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it might be. A professor of international health at Harvard University led the study. Joshua Salomon says a shorter treatment program would likely mean not just more patients
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, it would also mean
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infectious patients who can pass on their infection to others.
The researchers developed a mathematical model to examine the effects of a two-month treatment plan. They
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the model with current TB conditions in Southeast Asia. The scientists found that a two-month treatment could prevent about twenty percent of new cases. And it might
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about twenty-five percent of TB deaths. The model shows that these
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would take place between two thousand twelve and two thousand thirty. That is, if a faster cure is developed and in wide use by two thousand twelve.
The World Health Organization
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the DOTS (短期直接观察治疗) program in nineteen ninety. DOTS is Directly Observed Treatment, Short-course. Health workers watch tuberculosis patients take their daily pills to make
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if they continue treatment.
Earlier this year, an international partnership of organizations announced a plan to expand the DOTS program. The ten-year plan also aims to finance research
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new TB drugs. The four most common drugs used now are more than forty years old. The Global Alliance for TB Drug Development says its long-term goal is a treatment that could work in as few as ten doses.