Comments on: Tuberculosis treatment and patient-provider partnerships http://www.thelancetstudent.com/2007/12/07/tuberculosis-treatment-and-patient-compliance/ Thelancetstudent.com is a recently established website for students in medicine and related health areas, with a particular emphasis on global health. In the student podcast, Editor Rhona MacDonald highlights new content and interviews student authors of a key article published that week. Sat, 22 Nov 2008 12:07:33 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2 By: jschumar http://www.thelancetstudent.com/2007/12/07/tuberculosis-treatment-and-patient-compliance/#comment-684 jschumar Sun, 09 Dec 2007 23:38:47 +0000 http://www.thelancetstudent.com/2007/12/07/tuberculosis-treatment-and-patient-compliance/#comment-684 I believe there remains some controversy about whether DOT is even clinically needed at all in developing countries. A Cochrane meta-analysis in October 2007 concludes that: "The results of randomized controlled trials conducted in low-, middle-, and high-income countries provide no assurance that DOT compared with self administration of treatment has any quantitatively important effect on cure or treatment completion in people receiving treatment for tuberculosis" While I think it may be useful for some patients or in some clinical settings, the WHO protocol for universal DOT therapy may be wasting badly needed resources. Any thoughts on this? Josh I believe there remains some controversy about whether DOT is even clinically needed at all in developing countries. A Cochrane meta-analysis in October 2007 concludes that:

“The results of randomized controlled trials conducted in low-, middle-, and high-income countries provide no assurance that DOT compared with self administration of treatment has any quantitatively important effect on cure or treatment completion in people receiving treatment for tuberculosis”

While I think it may be useful for some patients or in some clinical settings, the WHO protocol for universal DOT therapy may be wasting badly needed resources. Any thoughts on this?

Josh

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