New antibiotic drug combo aids TB therapy

BALTIMORE, Sept. 19 (UPI) -- U.S. and Brazilian scientists have developed a new antibiotic drug combination that has been found effective in treating tuberculosis.

The team of tuberculosis experts at Johns Hopkins University and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro discovered substituting the antibiotic moxifloxacin in the regimen of drugs used to treat the highly contagious form of lung disease could shorten the time needed to cure the illness from six to four months.

The researchers found adding moxifloxacin to a standard combination of other antibiotics increased by 17 percent the number of patients who cleared active infections from their lungs -- raising cure rates from 68 percent to 85 percent -- after just two months of therapy, and when compared to patients taking the standard combination with another, older antibiotic, ethambutol.

"This is the most compelling evidence in nearly 25 years that a novel antibiotic drug combination works better than the current gold standard at curing active TB infection," said study senior author Dr. Richard Chaisson.

The findings were presented Wednesday in Chicago during the 47th Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.

Copyright 2007 by United Press International

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