According to a meta-analysis published in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases, patients with drug-resistant tuberculosis responded relatively poorly to WHO-recommended tuberculosis treatment.
“Treatment with the standardized regimen recommended for new patients without drug-susceptibility testing could contribute substantially to the epidemic of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis,” they concluded.
In a related editorial, Lia D’Ambrosio, with the WHO Collaborating Center for TB and Lung Disease, and colleagues noted that Gegia and colleagues’ findings are timely and important. “This study should prompt clinicians to establish fully the drug-resistance pattern before prescribing an anti-tuberculosis regimen, especially in places where the prevalence of resistance to isoniazid is high,” they wrote.
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