The international journal of tuberculosis and lung disease : the official journal of the International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease
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Int. J. Tuberc. Lung Dis. · Feb 2000
Using treatment failure under effective directly observed short-course chemotherapy programs to identify patients with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis.
Public ambulatory care centers in three districts of northern metropolitan Lima, Peru. ⋯ In this setting, treatment failure on DOT-SCC is strongly predictive of active MDR-TB. Because of existing local drug resistance patterns in northern Lima, 89.3% of MDR-TB patients identified as treatment failures will receive ineffective therapy with two or fewer secondary TB drugs if they are given the five-drug empiric retreatment regimen endorsed by the World Health Organization. Further short-course chemotherapy for these patients would only serve to amplify ominous existing drug resistance patterns.
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Int. J. Tuberc. Lung Dis. · Nov 1999
Implementation of fixed-dose combinations in tuberculosis control: outline of responsibilities.
Fixed-dose combinations (FDCs) of antituberculosis drugs have been available on the world market for more than forty years. For more than twenty years rifampicin-containing FDCs have become increasingly visible on the market in combinations of two, three and even four fixed-dose combinations, but in different dosages depending on the country and the region. ⋯ It is time to rationalise and extend the use of FDCs in national tuberculosis programmes. International, supranational and national responsibilities must be clearly defined in this process.