BOSTON – A combination regimen of rifapentine plus isoniazid (1HP) can do in 1 month what it takes isoniazid monotherapy 9 months to accomplish: effectively prevent tuberculosis in persons with HIV infection, investigators in the randomized phase 3 BRIEF TB trial reported.
“Rates of tuberculosis or death in individuals on 1HP were essentially identical to the rates of tuberculosis or death in people who got the 9-months regimen,” said Richard Chaisson, MD, of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore.
“People who got the 1-month regimen were more likely to complete it, had slightly less toxicity, and overall had very similar clinical outcomes,” he said at the annual Conference on Retroviruses & Opportunistic Infections.
Worldwide, more than 1,000 persons with HIV infection die from tuberculosis every day, he noted.