Kekkaku : [Tuberculosis]
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Kekkaku : [Tuberculosis] · Jan 2001
Review[Effectiveness and problems of PZA-containing 6-month regimen for the treatment of new pulmonary tuberculosis patients].
One third of the world population has been infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and the number of tuberculosis will increase worldwide without more effective programs of tuberculosis control. Despite of the presence of very potent anti-tuberculosis drugs the global tuberculosis situation is still very serious, and such gloomy feature are caused, at least partly, by the failures in the treatment of tuberculosis. The most important factor for the failure in chemotherapy is incompliance of the patients to the regimens. ⋯ WHO, CDC and ATS recommended that 4-drug regimen including pyrazinamide for the initial treatment of all cases of tuberculosis. Considering that the incidence of initial resistance to isoniazid is 4.4% in Japan, we should start to treat all cases of newly diagnosed tuberculosis with pyrazinamide-containing regimen (isoniazid, rifampicin, pyrazinamide, plus streptomycin or ethambutol). To do this, further studies on the risk factors of drug-induced hepatitis are urgently needed.