Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in children: Are the same therapy options available worldwide?

Push forward LC-MS-based therapeutic drug monitoring and pharmacometabolomics for anti-tuberculosis precision dosing and comprehensive clinical management

“…In addition, drug development should consider the impact of pharmacogenetics on treatment outcomes before translating it into the clinical setting [ 107 ]. Furthermore, it is necessary to establish suitable drug formulas, for example, to ensure palatability in children patients, and to ensure treatment effects in this population [ 146 ].…”

World Tuberculosis Day 2023 theme “Yes! We Can End TB!”

“…All these need to be factored in for a comprehensive worldwide TB control plan. In this special IJID World TB Day issue to commemorate World TB Day, we present nine reports covering several of these aspects: impacts of COVID-19 on the diagnosis of TB, MDR-TB, and on mortality [15] ; characterization of immune inflammation of TB-COVID-19 coinfection [16] ; the impact of COVID-19 on increasing non-communicable diseases, such as diabetes [17] ; updated drug-resistant tuberculosis treatment regimens [18] ; need of new formulations of TB drugs, especially for MDR-TB, for children [19] ; importance of the engagement of those affected by TB in the clinical trials [20] ; new proposed strategies to design new TB vaccines, such as the mRNA technology [21] ; characterization of the TB vaccine-induced immunity in newborns [22] ; the necessity to have genomic and geospatial epidemiology of Mtb at a local level, as reported in Oman [23] ; and the urgent need to have programmatic management of TB preventive treatment (PMTPT) [24] .…”

World Tuberculosis Day: Time to Translate New Clinical Findings in Pediatric Tuberculosis in Routine Practice

“…Supply shortages have been described also for first-line treatments like Rifampicin and Pirazinamide in Italy in 2022 20 and for other options to treat drug-resistant TB. 21 As all these drugs are effective, an immediate and feasible step is to provide drugs for MDR-TB in at least referral centers treating children with TB globally, as the phenomenon is rising and may affect children in every setting. Committees such as the WHO’s Green Light Committee and the recently constituted Global Drug-resistant TB Initiative (https://www.stoptb.org/stop-tb-working-groups/global-drug-resistant-tb-initiative) have been implemented to facilitate these steps.…”