Union technical staff have organised the first-ever international multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) course on the shortened nine-month treatment regimen in Cameroon in April 2016.
The Union has been using an operational research method to test this shortened treatment regimen in nine francophone African countries since January 2013, with results showing a more than 82% success rate, comparable to the success achieved in trials in Bangladesh, where this regimen was first tested . The promising results of this study have led The Union to begin teaching this treatment regimen as standard procedure instead of continuing to promote a treatment regimen that can last up to 24 months.
“This shortened regimen represents incredible progress in TB treatment,” says Dr Arnaud Trébucq, a lead investigator in the study of the nine-month treatment regimen in francophone Africa, as well as one of the instructors on the international MDR-TB course. “This significantly reduces the burden of MDR-TB treatment on the patients and I am excited to be part of the team working to spread this improved treatment regimen to patients throughout Africa.”
The course, taught in French to 30 participants from 17 countries across Africa, was held in Douala, Cameroon, one of the nine countries where The Union is currently testing the shortened MDR-TB regimen. Course participants were doctors, both general practitioners and specialists in lung health or infectious disease, working in hospitals and national TB programmes throughout the region.
The five-day course ended with a visit to a hospital where drug-resistant TB patients undergo treatment and follow up, to illustrate the process from start to finish and give participants the opportunity to speak to patients being treated under the shortened regimen.
Seven course instructors from The Union and partner organisations worked with course participants to train them in the use of the new treatment. Funding for the course came from the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and Expertise-France.