BCG (Bacille Calmette-Guerin): Vaccine is an attenuated vaccine that is used in many countries around the world where TB prevalence is high. In the U.S. however, the vaccine is not generally recommended because of the low risk of infection.
There are different levels of Drugs for Tuberculosis treatment. These levels are decided on the basis of their effectiveness and possible side effects. They are:
 Image I: taken from [1] pg no.149 The above images are of the first line drugs used in TB treatment.
 Image 2 url: http://www.niaid.nih.gov/SiteCollectionImages/topics/tuberculosis/simple1.jpg
In the above image, the year beside the drugs indicate the time at which they were discovered.
FIRST LINE DRUGS for the treatment of susceptible TB. First line drugs are for people who have active TB and have just started the treatment. Usually new patients are thought to have drug susceptible TB unless they get this disease from patients having drug resistant TB. According to WHO (World Health Organisation), new patients require to undergo treatment for at least 6 months.
"Intensive phase" includes treating the patient with first line drugs. The drugs given to the patients in the intensive phase are Isoniazid is given with Rifampicin, Pyrazinamide & Ethambutol
During "Continuation phase" Isoniazid is given with Rifampicin. >Drugs are to be taken everyday for 6 months (recommended) It is ESSENTIAL to take the drugs together, if the drugs are taken alone then the microorganism will rapidly become resistant to it. If treatment is stopped prematurely or all the prescribed drugs are not taken, the treatment wont work and the bacteria will become resistant. The resistant bacteria will make the patient ill and infectious again and this time the patient will have to be given drugs for the treatment of drug resistant TB which are more expensive and have more side-effects. The drugs are grouped according to their drug class and line of usage. All the drugs from group 1 are "first line" drug. TB drugs for the treatment for drug resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis  Image no.I: taken from [7] SECOND LINE DRUGS for treatment of drug resistant TB The drugs from group 2 to group 5 are "second line" drugs or reserve drugs. They
are usually used for treating drug resistent TB. The drugs from group 5
are usually used only if there is no other option left as in the case
of TDR (Totally Drug Resistant) TB. Its effectiveness against TB is
unknown. Few trials have been carried out to see the effectiveness of group 5 drugs against TDR. For eg: Linezolid is a drug used to treat severe bacterial infections[7]. In the first small trial that was carried out, it was found to be effective but then it had side effects on many patients. The major goals of treatment for TB disease are to
• Cure the individual patient; • Minimize risk of death and disability; and • Reduce transmission of M. tuberculosis to other persons.
Most of the bacteria are killed during the first 8 weeks of treatment; however, there are persistent organisms that require longer treatment. If treatment is not continued for a long enough duration, the surviving bacteria may cause the patient to become ill and infectious again, potentially with drug-resistant disease. References: [1]CDC n.d., Chapter 6 Treatment of Tuberculosis disease, http://www.cdc.gov/tb/education/corecurr/pdf/chapter6.pdf [2]Wikipedia the free encyclopedia n.d., Bacillus Calmette-guerin, viewed 11 September 2012, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacillus_Calmette%E2%80%93Gu%C3%A9rin [3]Tuberculosis n.d., Treatments and drugs, viewed 11 September 2012, http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/tuberculosis/DS00372/DSECTION=treatments-and-drugs [4]Pulmonary Tuberculosis n.d.,viewed 11 September 2012, [5]Wolters Kluwer health n.d., Second-line anti Tuberculosis therapy, viewed 11 September 2012, http://www.uptodate.com/contents/second-line-antituberculous-therapy [6]PennState Hershey, Pulmonary Tuberculosis, viewed 11 September 2012, [7] TB drugs n.d., viewed 16 February 2013, |
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