Scientists are hot on the trail of a new tuberculosis treatment. A small study presented on Monday at the International AIDS Conference found a novel three-drug combination passed a first-stage test to show it might work by killing as much TB bacteria in two weeks as older, more problematic therapy.
There haven’t been new drugs to treat TB in four decades. The lung disease kills more than 1.5 million people a year, is the leading killer of people with AIDS, and is fast becoming resistant to standard treatment.
It is noteworthy that the experimental drug trio does not include the older drugs that are spurring that resistance. New studies are beginning in South Africa, Tanzania and Brazil to better tell how well the combination will work.
