New TB Guidelines

• Given the availability of funding from international financial mechanisms, lack of resources for MDR (multi drug resistance) treatment is no longer an acceptable rationale for providing a retreatment regimen of first-line drugs (formerly called the “Category 2 regimen”) to patients with a high likelihood of MDR.

• The previous edition recommended the 8-month retreatment regimen with first-line drugs for all TB patients returning after defaulting or relapsing. By contrast, this edition allows for the possibility that, in some countries, these patients may have levels of MDR-TB that are high enough to warrant an MDR regimen while awaiting results of DST.