New Delhi, Feb 12 (IANS) Shorter, six‑month and all‑oral treatment regimens for multidrug‑resistant and rifampicin‑resistant tuberculosis (MDR/RR‑TB) are cost‑effective and deliver better health outcomes than longer regimens, an ICMR study said on Thursday.

With shorter regimen, “for each additional Quality Adjusted Life Year (QALY) gained, the health system spends Rs 379 less per patient compared to the standard regimen, indicating better health outcomes at lower costs,” said the study, according to a Ministry of Health and Family Welfare statement.

The study compared cost-effectiveness of bedaquiline-based regimens—BPaL (bedaquiline, pretomanid and linezolid) with the existing bedaquiline-containing shorter (9–11 months) and longer (18–20 months) treatment regimens used under the National TB Elimination Programme (NTEP).

It also compared BPaLM (with moxifloxacin) with existing regimen and found the former highly cost‑effective, costing only Rs 37 more per patient per additional QALY gained compared with the standard regimen.

Both regimens were associated with lower or comparable overall healthcare costs, including medicines, hospital visits, and follow-up care.

Multidrug‑resistant and rifampicin‑resistant tuberculosis (MDR/RR‑TB) poses significant treatment challenges due to prolonged treatment duration, adverse effects, and higher costs.

Shorter all-oral regimens can improve treatment adherence, reduce patient morbidity, and enable faster return to normal life, while also lowering the burden on the health system, said the findings.

“The findings provide important economic evidence to support the use of shorter, all-oral regimens for MDR or RR-TB management in India. By reducing treatment duration from 9–18 months or longer to six months, these regimens align with national priorities to optimise resource utilisation and accelerate progress towards TB elimination,” the statement said.

Current options for treating tuberculosis (TB) that are resistant to rifampicin (RR-TB) are limited and available regimens are often lengthy and poorly tolerated.

Delhi’s Intermediate Reference Laboratory, Tuberculosis Centre, recently received its first certification from the Central Tuberculosis Division (CTD) to conduct Drug Susceptibility Testing (DST) for bedaquiline (BDQ) and Pretomanid (Pa), used globally for the treatment of drug-resistant tuberculosis.

—IANS

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