New drug available for Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in early-stage ... Revised Korean guidelines for tuberculosis

Recommended the rapid drug susceptibility test of Isoniazid and Rifampinfor tuberculosis patients

The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced on the 7ththat it has revised the Korean guidelines for tuberculosis so that patientswith multidrug-resistant tuberculosis can be diagnosed quickly and new drugscan be used in the early stages.

Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis is tuberculosis that is resistant tocommon tuberculosis drugs (Isonazide and Rifampin). If they don't receivetreatment, they not only continue to infect people around them, but also diewithin an average of five years.

The revision of the guidelines follows the World Health Organization(WHO)'s revision of the guidelines for the integration of multi-drug-resistanttuberculosis in March last year, which includes standardized methods fordiagnosis and treatment of multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis suitable for thereality in South Korea.

The revised guidelines recommended rapid drug susceptibility test ofisonazide and rifampin for all tuberculosis patients to reduce delays indiagnosing multidrug-resistant tuberculosis. If multidrug-resistanttuberculosis is confirmed, a quick sensitivity test for additional quinolonedrugs will also be added.

In order to increase the success rate of treatment, linezolid, quinolone -baseddrugs and the new drug bedaquilline were classified as key drugs in the earlystages of treatment. For another new drug, Delamanid, it was recommended toclassify it as an optional drug and use it as an alternative to bedaquilline.

The number of new cases of tuberculosis in South Korea stood at 23,821last year, 46.4 per 100,000, the eighth consecutive year since 2011.

Among them, the number of new patients with multidrug-resistanttuberculosis has been decreasing every year to 975 in 2011, 787 in 2015 and 580in 2019. However, the success rate of treatment was 64.7 percent in 2017, lowerthan 70-80 percent in advanced countries.

Jeong Eun-kyung, head of the Korea Centers for Disease Control andPrevention, said, "We will make efforts to improve related systems such asexpanding medical care benefits such as new multidrug-resistant tuberculosisdrugs and easing restrictions on rapid sensitivity tests," adding, "Weare also preparing to designate specialized medical institutions and establisha consortium to enhance the success of treatment of patients withmultiple-drug-resistant tuberculosis."

The revised guidelines for tuberculosis treatment can be found on thewebsite of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, TuberculosisZERO and the integrated disease health management system from the same day.Print copies will be distributed to private medical institutions and localgovernments by the end of this month.