WHO treatment guidelines - revised

It's nice to see any revised guidelines, this lot being from WHO and dealing primarily with treating active TB. At a quick glance the big change seems to be in the recommended drug regime,

to discontinue the regimen based on just 2 months of rifampicin (2HRZE/6HE) and change to the regimen based on a full 6 months of rifampicin (2HRZE/4HR) will reduce the number of relapses and failures.

In longhand that is two months of INH, Rifampin, Pyrazinmid and Ethambutol followed by four months of INH and Rifampin

It appears that Ethambutol carries a risk of blindness.

There are also various drug combinations dependent on levels of resistance and patient health - invariably TB patients are sick.

Treating active TB can be a complex business and it would be easier to treat the initial infection before it progresses to a disease state.