Three-in-one drug wipes the floor with TB

[xchrom]

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn22095-threeinone-drug-wipes-the-floor-with-tb.html

A new drug combination is less toxic, quicker and cheaper than existing treatments, and seems to work against drug-resistant TB strains

After decades rampaging across the globe, tuberculosis has a real fight on its hands. That's thanks to the arrival of a drug combination that could for the first time dramatically shorten treatment and tackle both ordinary and multi-drug-resistant strains of TB.

Called PaMZ, the pill is a combination of the standard TB drug pyrazinamide with the antibiotic moxifloxacin – not previously used against TB – and PA-824, a drug whose potential against TB was reported by New Scientist in 2001.

PaMZ could wipe out several resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis – the cause of most cases of TB – which have been spreading through South Africa, India and the countries that made up the former Soviet Union. What's more, it could work in a sixth of the time of existing treatments, at a tenth of the cost – as well as slashing by a third the number of pills required.

[pipoman]

1. I thought this was going to ba about a new terrorist threat...

"Three-in-one drug wipes the floor with TB"...yuck

[Warpy]

2. This is great news considering drug resistant TB is poised

to become a major worldwide health issue.

I just hope they can get treatment where it is needed and are willing to incarcerate infected people who can't be counted on to be reliable in taking the drugs.

While incarceration seems like a drastic step, the laws were still on the books in Boston, which used them just enough to drop TB rates among the homeless drastically.

[mzteris]

3. but, but, but . . .

I thought we all hated all things bout "big pharma" and think they're just trying to poison us and make buckets of money while they do so. . .

[MisterP]

4. that's a really, really gross headline