New TB Drug Sets Hopes for South Africa

Tuberculosis is an epidemic crippling South Africa. A new drug, Bedaquiline, could prove to be a revolution in dealing with the epidemic of tuberculosis in South Africa. Presently the vaccine is being incorporated to patients who are suffering from side effects of the usual drug-resistant TB treatment or patients who have developed complete drug resistance.

Tuberculosis is a major health problem in South Africa and the drug is being seen as a respite. The drug has been administered in 217 patients as part of the early access programme.  “We want to get 3,000 patients on bedaquiline this year, and plans are in place to scale up,” said Norbert Ndjeka, South Africa’s director of the drug-resistant tuberculosis programme.

“The drugs are already in a number of our facilities. Definitely these drugs will reach the patients.” Drug resistance is growing so fast that last year WHO warned that rates were at “crisis levels”.

“The treatment we’ve got is not great, but we know what the side effects are,” said Andrew Black, a pulmonologist at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. “At the moment we don’t know (enough) about the new drug.” While the new drug is welcome, South Africa’s ability to combat tuberculosis is held back by an overstretched health care system, said Black. “We won’t know if we’re winning for a couple of years,” he said, “but it’s not like HIV was, we’re not ignoring it.”

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