New patient-friendly TB preventive therapy to be rolled out in five high-burden TB countries at affordable price
New patient-friendly tuberculosis preventive therapy to be rolled out in five high-burden TB countries at affordable price
- Fixed-dose combination treatments reduce the pill burden from nine to three pills a week for adults and prevent TB in those at highest risk of developing the disease
- Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe will be the first countries out of a total of 12 to provide the new regimen at a US$15 price thanks to funding from Unitaid, PEPFAR and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria
A new fixed-dose combination (FDC) of “3HP”, a short-course tuberculosis (TB) preventive treatment (TPT) combining two drugs, rifapentine and isoniazid, is starting to be rolled out in five TB high burden countries in Africa. This will reduce the number of pills that people who need the treatment have to take every week from nine to three. Enough treatments for up to 3 million patients are expected to be made available for eligible countries this year.
