Researchers from the universities of Cape Town, Stellenbosch and the Free State were part of the international team that recently discovered that a new combination of drugs was able to kill more TB bacteria more quickly than standard treatment.
The results come after an eight-week trial involving about 200 TB patients from South Africa and Tanzania. Patients either received standard TB treatment – or a novel combination of drugs including the new anti-TB drug PA-824, as well as moxifloxacin and pyrazinamide.
The study is the longest study to date of the new three-drug combination, according to Dr Rodney Dawson, head of research innovation at the University of Cape Town’s Lung Institute.
According to results released yesterday, about 70 percent of patients on the new drug combination showed no sign of TB in sputum samples after two months in comparison to only 50 percent of those patients on standard TB treatment.
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