Short course chemotherapy for pulmonary tuberculosis.

ABSTRACT

A retrospective survey of the treatment of culture positive pulmonary tuberculosis with a standard 6-month course of unsupervised therapy, comprising rifampicin and isoniazid daily for 6 months with pyrazinamide for the first 8 weeks is reported. Of the 164 patients who commenced this regimen, 110 completed therapy as planned. There were five relapses, three of whom admitted significant non-compliance, giving a relapse rate of 4.59% (95% confidence interval, 1.49-10.7). The regimen gives satisfactory results in routine unsupervised treatment.