An inexpensive daily pill can often fend off a lethal bout of tuberculosis in people with H.I.V., according to a large new study.
The drug is isoniazid, a genericantibiotic, and the World Health Organization has recommended a daily dose since 1998 for H.I.V. patients who harbor germs for tuberculosis but have no symptoms; full-blown TB is a leading killer of AIDS victims. But public health doctors in poor countries rarely bother.
“It’s a combination of ignorance, fear of creating antibiotic resistance and a belief among many TB doctors that it won’t work,” said Dr. Richard E. Chaisson, a tuberculosis specialist at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine who led the research.
Donald G. McNeil Jr.
The New York Times
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