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A man receives his tuberculosis medicines at the Batasan Hills Health Center in Quezon City on September 28, 2021. Jonathan Cellona, ABS-CBN News/File

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Pam CASTRO

Agence France-Presse

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:867px"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1712901769796Screen Shot 2024-04-12 at 2.01.49 PM.png" style="width:900px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="A man receives his tuberculosis medicines at the Batasan Hills Health Center in Quezon City on September 28, 2021. Jonathan Cellona, ABS-CBN News/File"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left">A man receives his tuberculosis medicines at the Batasan Hills Health Center in Quezon City on September 28, 2021. <em id="isPasted">Jonathan Cellona, ABS-CBN News/File</em></span></span></span></div><p>MANILA — A faster and vastly more effective treatment for drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) is being rolled out in the Asia-Pacific region, raising hopes of a &quot;new era&quot; in tackling one of the world&#x27;s deadliest infectious diseases.</p><p>The region had most of the world&#x27;s estimated 10.6 million new TB cases in 2022, and more than half of the 1.3 million deaths, World Health Organization (WHO) figures show.</p><p>While TB can be successfully treated with antibiotics, more than three percent of new TB patients are resistant to commonly prescribed drugs.</p><p>Until recently, treatment for these patients involved daily painful injections or a fistful of pills for 18 months or longer, while some endured severe side effects such as nausea and, in extreme cases, blindness.</p><p>Many people prematurely quit their treatment, which had a success rate of 63 percent or lower.</p><div><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/2024/3/14/doh-reports-increase-in-tb-cases-in-2023-1820" id="isPasted">READ: DOH reports increase in TB cases in 2023</a></div><p>Now, a new drug regimen involving fewer pills and side effects is being rolled out in the Asia-Pacific, including the Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia, where trials have shown a more than 90 percent cure rate after six months.</p><p>The treatment, known as BPaL, combines the antibiotics bedaquiline, pretomanid and linezolid, and has received regulatory approval in more than 60 countries since 2019, according to the non-profit TB Alliance, which developed it.</p><p>The WHO updated its guidelines in 2022 to allow BPaL to be used with or without a fourth antibiotic called moxifloxacin.</p><p>BPaL has been life-changing for Filipino cook Efifanio Brillante, who was diagnosed with drug-resistant TB in June 2022 and initially went on an older form of treatment.</p><p>Brillante, 57, was swallowing 20 tablets a day, but it left him feeling so nauseous that he couldn&#x27;t work or eat.</p><p>He stopped the medication after two weeks even though he knew the decision could be fatal.</p><p>&quot;It&#x27;s very difficult. You&#x27;re always in bed,&quot; Brillante told AFP about his experience of having TB.</p><p>&quot;Sometimes I couldn&#x27;t even breathe.&quot;</p><p>The following month, Brillante joined a BPaL trial at the Jose B Lingad Memorial General Hospital in Pampanga province, north of the Philippine capital Manila.</p><p>He took between three and seven pills a day and was cured after six months.</p><p>&quot;I&#x27;m very thankful that I was healed,&quot; Brillante told AFP in his home.</p><p>&quot;If I didn&#x27;t take that BPaL, I might already be buried in the cemetery.&quot;</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>&#x27;A CURABLE DISEASE&#x27;</strong></div><div><br/></div><p>TB, once called consumption, is caused by a bacteria that primarily attacks the lungs and is transmitted through the air by infected people, for example by coughing.</p><div><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/overseas/11/08/23/fight-against-tb-back-on-track-after-covid-disruptions-who">READ: Fight against TB back on track after Covid disruptions: WHO</a></div><p>While it is found in every country, poorer people living and working in overcrowded conditions are at higher risk of the disease.</p><p>Eight countries accounted for two-thirds of new TB cases in 2022: India, Indonesia, China, the Philippines, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh and the Democratic Republic of Congo.</p><p>One of the biggest challenges of treating drug-resistant TB has been getting patients to take the full course of their medication.</p><p>Even in countries where treatment is free, patients face crippling travel costs to hospitals and loss of income, or even their job, due to the illness and side-effects of the drugs, leading many to stop taking their pills.</p><p>In Vietnam, most people diagnosed with TB are from low-income families, Hoang Thi Thanh Thuy from the Vietnam National Tuberculosis Program told AFP.</p><p>Nearly everyone with drug-resistant TB endured &quot;catastrophic&quot; expenses over the period of their treatment, she said.</p><p>&quot;All of these difficulties can affect patient compliance and lead to poor treatment and increasing drug resistance,&quot; Thuy said.</p><p>Identifying people with TB is also a challenge.</p><p>In Indonesia, some healthcare facilities are still not able to properly diagnose the disease, said Imran Pambudi of the health ministry.</p><p>Fear of social stigma from a positive diagnosis is also common.</p><p>&quot;We&#x27;re trying to educate them that TB is a curable disease,&quot; said Irene Flores, who led the BPaL trial at the Jose B Lingad Memorial General Hospital in the Philippines.</p><p>&quot;If they come early, we can prevent complications.&quot;</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>MORE INVESTMENT NEEDED </strong></div><div><br/></div><p>After years of decline, the number of people falling ill with TB and drug-resistant tuberculosis began increasing during the Covid-19 pandemic, which disrupted diagnosis and treatment, the WHO said previously.</p><p>After gargantuan global efforts to develop a vaccine against the coronavirus, the WHO has called for increased funding to fight TB.</p><p>&quot;As TB stopped being a high income-country problem, motivation to invest in research and development for new TB drugs dried up,&quot; said Sandeep Juneja, senior vice president of market access at the TB Alliance.</p><p>To help accelerate the rollout of BPaL, with or without moxifloxacin, the TB Alliance has set up a &quot;knowledge hub&quot; in Manila to provide training and assistance to other countries.</p><p>In India, where BPaL has been approved, there is growing impatience for it to be introduced into health clinics given the country&#x27;s world-beating caseload.</p><p>&quot;BPaL should be rolled out soon because it will spare patients a lot of headaches and provide psychological relief too, besides reducing cost of treatment in the long run,&quot; said Ravikant Singh, founder of advocacy group Doctors For You.</p><p>Juneja said the new regimen meant treating drug-resistant TB was no longer a guessing game of whether a patient would survive or not.</p><p>But more is needed to be done, he added.</p><p>&quot;I hope this is... just the beginning of a new era of TB treatment where they will be even simpler, even shorter.&quot;</p><div><strong>© Agence France-Presse</strong></div><div><br/></div><div><strong>RELATED VIDEO</strong></div><div style="text-align:center"><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/km4s-UwOZFc?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span>Watch more News on <a href="https://www.iwanttfc.com/#!/browse/Genres/News/tag_id_genres/id_news" id="isPasted" style="color:rgb(60, 151, 255)" target="_blank">iWantTFC.com</a>. 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<p>A faster and vastly more effective treatment for drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) is being rolled out in the Asia-Pacific region, raising hopes of a "new era" in tackling one of the world's deadliest infectious diseases.</p>

A faster and vastly more effective treatment for drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) is being rolled out in the Asia-Pacific region, raising hopes of a "new era" in tackling one of the world's deadliest infectious diseases.

Philippines gets new weapon in fight against drug-resistant tuberculosis

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Philippines gets new weapon in fight against drug-resistant tuberculosis

Pam CASTRO,

Agence France-Presse

Published Apr 12, 2024 02:11 PM PHT

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Updated Jun 10, 2024 03:27 PM PHT

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