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The good news is that tuberculosis can be cured over 95% of the time. And that is when patients have drug susceptible TB. Even drug resistant TB, which used to have a very high mortality rate, is now 90% curable with some exciting new regiments that have just come along in the last few years. The standard drugs for TB include isoniazid, which is also called INH, rifampin, sometimes called rifampicin in other countries, pyrazinamide, and ethambutol. Isoniazid and rifampin are prescribed for a total of six months, while pyrazinamide and ethambutol are only taken for the first two months. There’s also now a shorter four-month regimen that has just come out in clinical trials and should be approved sometime in 2021. For TB preventive therapy, patients may be prescribed medications such as rifapentine and isoniazid once weekly for 12 weeks, or an older regimen isoniazid once daily for nine months. Another option is rifampin daily for four months. All of these medications have some side effects. For INH, the main ones are numbness of the fingers and toes, and also liver toxicity can be an issue. It’s important if you develop any of these symptoms while taking TB medications to immediately seek care so you can get evaluated and make sure you don’t have any serious complications.
