Researchers Find that Cheap Antibiotic Pill Can Help Prevent Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis
A new study has shown that a commonly available antibiotic pill can reduce the risk of people exposed to drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) from contracting the particularly deadly strain of the disease. The research, presented at the Union World Conference on Lung Health in Paris, found that the antibiotic levofloxacin can cut the risk of developing drug-resistant TB by as much as 60 percent.
Tuberculosis is the second deadliest infectious disease, according to the World Health Organization, and kills nearly as many people as Covid-19 each year. Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is a particularly concerning form of the disease, as it is resistant to front-line drugs and can be deadly.
The research, which focused on both children and adults in South Africa and Vietnam, found that levofloxacin reduced the risk of MDR-TB by 56 percent in children and 45 percent in adults. The study involving children was the first randomised, placebo-controlled trial to investigate whether a drug could prevent MDR-TB in children.
Lead researcher Anneke Hesseling, from Stellenbosch University, explained the importance of the research, particularly for children living in homes with a parent who has the disease. “When the kid has been exposed to MDR-TB, they’ve often seen people die – it’s been devastating in their family,” she added.
The study, which was partly funded by the international health agency Unitaid, followed 453 children exposed to an adult in their home with MDR-TB, with only five contracting the disease. Unitaid chief Philippe Duneton called the research “a major advance that has the potential to protect millions of children from a debilitating illness”.
Levofloxacin has been available for decades and has been widely used to treat tuberculosis, but the preventative treatment involved taking a pill once a day for six months. Since the trial, a better tasting, more dissolvable, “kid-friendly” version of levofloxacin has been developed.
The results of this research are particularly significant as the World Health Organization is expected to update its guidelines for tuberculosis in the coming months. This new information about the potential of levofloxacin to prevent MDR-TB could have a significant impact on the way the disease is managed and treated in the future.