One-Month Tuberculosis Prophylaxis as Effective as Nine-Month Regimen for People Living with HIV

A one-month antibiotic regimen to prevent active tuberculosis (TB) disease was at least as safe and effective as the standard nine-month therapy for people living with HIV, according to the results of a large international clinical trial. Adults and adolescents in the trial were more likely to complete the short-course regimen—consisting of daily doses of the antibiotics rifapentine and isoniazid for four weeks—than the standard nine-month regimen of daily isoniazid.

The Phase 3 clinical trial, called ACTG 5279, was sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, and conducted by the NIAID-funded AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG). Richard E. Chaisson, M.D., professor of medicine, epidemiology and international health at Johns Hopkins University and co-chair of the trial, presented the findings March 5 at the 2018 Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) in Boston. . .