Pulmonary TB is a bacterial infection in the lungs and can be life-threatening if the patient does not receive the treatment. A combination of bedaquiline, pretomanid, and linezolid is known to produce favorable outcomes in patients with pulmonary TB. This study aims to investigate the safety and efficacy of the combination of bedaquiline, pretomanid, and linezolid for the treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis (TB).
This is an open-label, single-group study that was conducted on a total of 109 patients with extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis. The participants were given the drug combination for 26 weeks, and the safety and efficacy of the drugs were evaluated. The primary outcome of the study was the incidence of unfavorable outcomes, such as treatment failure or relapse.
At a follow-up of 6 months after the treatment, 98 patients (90%) had a favorable outcome, and 11 (10%) had an unfavorable outcome. The 11 adverse outcomes included 7 deaths, 1 withdrawal of consent, 2 relapses, 1 loss to follow-up. Other adverse events, like peripheral neuropathy and myelosuppression, were common but manageable.
The research concluded that the combination of bedaquiline, pretomanid, and linezolid resulted in a favorable outcome at 6 months in patients with highly drug-resistant pulmonary tuberculosis.
Ref: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1901814
