Tuberculosis management
Tuberculosis management refers to the medical treatment of the infectious disease tuberculosis (TB).
The standard "short" course treatment for TB is isoniazid (along with pyridoxal phosphate to obviate peripheral neuropathy caused by isoniazid), rifampicin (also known as rifampin in the United States), pyrazinamide, and ethambutol for two months, then isoniazid and rifampicin alone for a further four months. The patient is considered to be free of living bacteria after six months. For latent tuberculosis, the standard treatment is six to nine months of daily isoniazid alone or three months of weekly (12 doses total) of isoniazid/rifapentine combination. If the organism is known to be fully sensitive, then treatment is with isoniazid, rifampicin, and pyrazinamide for two months, followed by isoniazid and rifampicin for four months. Ethambutol need not be used.
All first-line anti-tuberculous drug names have a standard three-letter and a single-letter abbreviation:
First-line anti-tuberculous drug names are often remembered with the mnemonic "RIPE," referring to the use of a rifamycin (like rifampin), isoniazid, pyrazinamide, and ethambutol. The US uses abbreviations and names that are not internationally recognised: rifampicin is called rifampin and abbreviated RIF; streptomycin is abbreviated STM. In the US only, streptomycin is no longer considered a first line drug by ATS/IDSA/CDC because of high rates of resistance. The WHO have made no such recommendation.
Drug regimens are similarly abbreviated in a standardised manner. The drugs are listed using their single letter abbreviations (in the order given above, which is roughly the order of introduction into clinical practice). A prefix denotes the number of months the treatment should be given for; a subscript denotes intermittent dosing (so 3 means three times a week) and no subscript means daily dosing. Most regimens have an initial high-intensity phase, followed by a continuation phase (also called a consolidation phase or eradication phase): the high-intensity phase is given first, then the continuation phase, the two phases divided by a slash.
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