STREAM trial for MDR-TB preliminary results released

Preliminary results - released last week at the 48th Union Conference on Lung Health - from Stage 1 of the STREAM randomised clinical trial show that the nine-month treatment regimen being tested achieved favourable outcomes in almost 80 percent of those treated.

The results suggest the nine-month regimen is very close to the effectiveness of the 20-24 month regimen recommended in the 2011 WHO guidelines, when both regimens are given under trial conditions.

The STREAM trial - initiated by The Union in 2012 with its main partner, the Medical Research Council Clinical Trials Unit at UCL, is the world's first multi-country randomised clinical trial to test the efficacy, safety and economic impact of shortened multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) treatment regimens.

You can read more about the trial's initial findings on the MRC CTU website.