A sizeable portion of people receiving DR-TB treatment do not complete therapy. This is often due to the length and side effects of treatments. Those who are “lost to follow up” may remain contagious and infect others, as well as suffer increased disabilty or death. BPaL/M projects significantly lower lost to follow up rates than alternative treatments.
People who do not complete treatment and/or follow-up are not considered to have successful treatment outcomes. Thus, additional treatment successes are about more than just “lives saved.” Through 2034, treating DR-TB with BPaL will result in more than 330,000 additional people with DR-TB being successfully treated.
The BPaL/M treatment costs less than $2 per day, however the vast majority of cost savings from implementing these new regimens is achieved through shorter and simpler treatment, reducing human and financial burden on health systems. This allows for the expansion of DR-TB care where costs and human resources have previously limited health systems’ capacities to treat DR-TB.
BPaL/M has shown higher treatment success rates in both trial and real world settings. Treating DR-TB with with BPaL/M instead of alternate regimens projects to save an additional 191,222 lives, globally.
Many people battling DR-TB around the world face financial hardship. TB exacerbates those hardships through lost wages while seeking treatment, repeated trips to clinics, and other related expenses. Shorter treatments with better outcomes mean additional savings for people with DR-TB.
BPaL/M is both shorter and less expensive than alternate DR-TB regimens. Length of treatment is the leading driver of cost of DR-TB treatment. The increased uptake of BPaL/M projects to result in significant cost savings for both individuals and health systems.
Tuberculosis isn’t only the world’s leading infectious cause of death; many who survive suffer long term debilitation. Short and effective DR-TB cures will result in improved quality of life for hundreds of thousands of people each year.
