Common Pill Lowers Chance of Lethal Drug-Resistant TB Strain
Common Pill Lowers Chance of Lethal Drug-Resistant TB Strain Researchers reported on Thursday that a cheap, widely accessible antibiotic pill reduces the probability that individuals exposed to drug-resistant tuberculosis may develop the particularly lethal variant of the illness. According to the World Health Organisation, tuberculosis is the second most deadly infectious illness, killing just marginally fewer people than Covid-19 in the previous year. An estimated 450,000 people get multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) annually, a disease that is no longer treatable with first-line medications. MDR-TB treatment was only available to two out of every five patients last year, in part because to the disease’s disproportionately high prevalence in underdeveloped nations. However, recent research from South Africa presented at the Union World Conference on Lung Health in Paris has showed that the widely prescribed antibiotic levofloxacin safely reduces the chance of children developi...