Investigating the Effectiveness of Long-term Regimen versus Short-term Regimen in Treating Drug Resistant Tuberculosis and their Treatment Outcomes

Authors

  • Sajjad Ali Department of Pulmonology, Mardan Medical complex, Bacha khan Medical college, Mardan, Pakistan.
  • Rumman Programmatic Management of Drug Resistant Tuberculosis Unit, Mardan Medical Complex, Mardan - Pakistan
  • Ashraf Pro-Gene Diagnostics and Research Laboratory, Mardan - Pakistan
  • Ubaid Ullah Programmatic Management of Drug Resistant Tuberculosis Unit, Mardan Medical Complex, Mardan - Pakistan
  • Abdul Ghafoor National Tuberculosis Control Program, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa - Pakistan
  • Haroon Latif Khan Provincial Tuberculosis Control Program, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa - Pakistan
  • Faisal Younas Associaton for Community Development, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa - Pakistan
  • Akmal Naveed Associaton for Community Development, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa - Pakistan

Keywords:

Tuberculosis, Treatment Outcome, LTR, STR, MDR-TB

Abstract

Background Drug-resistant tuberculosis, defined by resistance to conventional antitubercular medications, presents significant treatment challenges. The efficacy of long-term versus short-term treatment regimens in managing this condition remains a critical area of investigation. Objective To assess how different treatment durations, both long-term and short-term regimen, influence the rates of treatment success, treatment failure, and mortality among patients suffering from drug-resistant tuberculosis. Methodology This prospective cohort study was conducted from June 2021 to December 2023 in the Department of pulmonology, Mardan Medical Complex, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. In this study DR-TB patients were enrolled. Patients were randomly assigned to long-term or short-term regimens. The long-term regimen (LTR) consists of treatment for 18-20 months, while the short-term regimen (STR) was 11 months, based on the latest World Health Organization (WHO) consolidated guidelines on drug-resistant tuberculosis. Data analyses were conducted with utilizing the SPSS (v.29.0) Results A total of 178 DR-TB patients were enrolled in this study. Gender distribution showed 45 males (47.36%) and 50 females (52.63%) in the STR group, and 46 males (55.42%) and 37 females (44.57%) in the LTR group. Significant age differences were noted, with mean ages of 34.16 years (±16.76) in the STR group and 41.71 years (±18.44) in the LTR group. Treatment outcomes revealed an 86.31% treatment success rate in the STR group vs 79.51% in the LTR group, with death rates of 4.21% vs. 9.63%. Conclusion Our findings suggest that, while both approaches produce comparable treatment success rate, however, short-term regimens may be a viable alternative to long-term treatments in specific patient groups that are younger, potentially improving adherence and lowering healthcare costs.

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Published

2024-03-02

How to Cite

Ali, S. ., Rumman, Ashraf, Ullah, U., Ghafoor, A. ., Khan, H. L. ., Younas, F. ., & Naveed, A. . (2024). Investigating the Effectiveness of Long-term Regimen versus Short-term Regimen in Treating Drug Resistant Tuberculosis and their Treatment Outcomes. Pakistan Journal of Chest Medicine, 30(1), 04–11. Retrieved from https://pjcm.net/index.php/pjcm/article/view/906

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