A SHORTER treatment for tuberculosis could soon be a reality. Since the early 1990s, the main strategy for treating TB in developed countries has been a 6-month treatment course called DOTS (Directly Observed Treatment Strategy). Patients must regularly attend a clinic to take the drugs, to ensure they complete the course. But a large proportion still fail to complete it, so they relapse and their TB bugs often become drug-resistant and much harder to treat.
Now researchers at the Tuberculosis Research Centre in Chennai, India, have found that replacing one of the four DOTS drugs, ethambutol, with the more…
