PUNE: The anti-tuberculosis (TB) treatment in children is set to become shorter, more cost-effective and compliance-friendly, with the World Health Organisation (WHO) strongly recommending change in the paediatric TB treatment duration from six months to four months in its latest guidelines.
The new recommendation is based on the key findings of the Indian and African researchers who studied a total of 1,204 children for three years as a part of the multi-centric clinical research and established that a four-month treatment regimen was good enough to treat drug-susceptible and non-severe TB in children.
In India, paediatricians and researchers at BJ Medical College and Sassoon General Hospital, a state-run institute in Pune, and National Institute of Research in Tuberculosis (NIRT), an ICMR-research unit in Chennai, were part of this seminal study, along with experts in Uganda, Zambia and South Africa. The Medical Research Council, an apex medical research body in the UK coordinated the study and provided the funds as well as the logistics.
The prestigious New England Journal of Medicine published this study — ‘Shorter Treatment for Nonsevere Tuberculosis in African and Indian Children’ — on March 10 this year.
“We hope that governments and policymakers in various countries take note of this recommendation, which is based on our extensive research,” said paediatrician Dr Aarti Kinikar, the lead investigator at BJ Government Medical College (BJGMC)-Sassoon Hospital.
The four-month treatment regimen will significantly improve treatment compliance, bringing down unwanted exposure to drug-toxicity, Dr Kinikar said.
Covid-19 pandemic led to delay in analysing and publishing the research. The study kicked off in 2016 and concluded in 2019. “Prior to issuing the new recommendation in its latest 2022 guidelines, WHO officials had held a slew of meetings with us to understand the study’s various aspects,” said Dr Vidya Mave, director and Clinical Research Site leader of the Johns Hopkins University Baltimore-India Clinical Trials Unit in Pune, India.
India has the world’s largest burden of tuberculosis, and the treatment is prolonged and difficult—particularly for children. “Our team is proud to have contributed to findings that shorten the length of treatment, and we are grateful to the families who participated in this important effort,” Dr Mave said.
Dr Sayyad Hissar, NIRT scientist and one of the key researchers of the study, said, “Shortening treatment duration would not only increase the compliance to the treatment but also help to treat more kids effectively with the available resources.”
