No more injections in new TB treatment

DRUG-resistant tuberculosis patients at Khayelitsha’s Town 2 Community Day Care Clinic can look forward to more efficient and effective treatment without injections thanks to the launch of the “endTB trial” project.

The launch yesterday was by Doctors Without Borders and will be implemented at other clinics in the area.

Medical co-ordinator Dr Amir Shroufi said the “endTB trial” was an innovative drug-resistant TB clinical trial and multi-site project taking place also in Peru, Kazakhstan, Georgia and Lesotho.

He said the trial aimed to find treatments for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) that were shorter, less toxic and more effective than current treatments.

“Drug-resistant TB is very difficult to treat and is still killing many people. Part of the reason is that treatment is long and toxic and not effective enough. This study is looking at new and better methods of treating the disease to try to improve those outcomes.”

Goodman Makanda, who was cured of TB, had been on injection treatment for five years after being diagnosed. He welcomed the new form of treatment.

“I had been working as a cleaner when I contracted TB. I took injections for nine months every day, and ended up losing my left lung. I am doing advocacy for Doctors Without Borders at Bellville. I feel proud that we have medication without injections,” he said.

Doctors Without Borders’ project co-ordinator in Khayelitsha, Sarah Daho, said: “What the new clinical treatments are doing is bringing new drugs that are non-injectable and less toxic.”

She said the “endTB trial” treatment lasted a maximum of nine months, as opposed to two years of daily injections.