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Tuesday, October 18, 2005Four old off-patent antibiotics - isoniazid, ethambutol, rifampicin and pyrazinamide - are the mainstays of first-line tuberculosis treatment. A typical patient takes cocktails of them for six months. In tests in mice with tuberculosis, the substitution of moxifloxacin for one of them cuts treatment time to four months, Dr. Castro said. He also said that moxifloxacin's close chemical relatives ciprofloxacin and levofloxacin had been used for a decade to treat multidrug-resistant strains of TB, like the ones that broke out in New York City in the late 1980's. Moxifloxacin lasts longer in the body and appears safer than the other two drugs, he said. posted by Sydney on 10/18/2005 08:40:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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