Better drugs and understanding should see tuberculosis treated like any other respiratory disease in future, the TB Alliance said in Durban on Thursday.
"TB should be treated like any respiratory disease with improved understanding and the better discovery of new drugs," said Dr Christo van Niekerk, a senior director in clinical development at the TB Alliance, a not-for-profit, product development partnership.
He was speaking at the second annual TB conference at the Inkosi Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre, which started on Tuesday and was scheduled to finish on Friday.
Van Niekerk told delegates it was the vision of the TB Alliance that TB be treated like any respiratory disease, reducing the dosage from the current six to 24 months of treatment, to two to four months, and ideally 10 days. He said this could be done through further research and improved drugs.
Simpler dosage methods were needed.
"Currently patients need to take four drugs daily. A shorter, simpler therapy needed to be introduced," said Van Niekerk. Tuberculosis treatment should also be accessible, affordable and easily adopted by patients.
On Wednesday civil society groups called upon the health department to draw up new guidelines and implementation plans to fully integrate TB and HIV treatment at all health facilities in South Africa.
TB was the greatest cause of death among people with HIV, despite being a curable disease.
"There is no reason why all primary health care facilities should not be integrating TB and HIV fully. It has been outlined in policy but there are no implementations plans.
"We call on the department of health to draw up integration plans within the next three months without delay," said deputy secretary general of the Treatment Action Campaign Lihle Dlamini.
TB and HIV care was supposed to have been provided under one roof from the beginning of April this year, according to new antiretroviral guidelines announced in President Jacob Zuma's 2009 World Aids Day speech.