Treatment of TB

Treatment for TB uses antibiotics to kill bacteria. The two antibiotics most commonly used are rifampicin and isoniazid. However, these treatments are more difficult than the short courses of antibiotics used to cure most other bacterial infections as long periods of treatments (around 6 to 12 months) are needed to entirely eliminate mycobacterium from the body. Latent TB treatment usually uses a single antibiotic, while active TB disease is best treated with combinations of several antibiotics to reduce the risk of the bacteria developing antibiotic resistance. People with latent infections are treated to prevent them from progressing to active TB disease later in life. Treatment using rifampicin & pyrazinamide (often used) is also not always risk free. It may cause liver damage & death due to combination of these drugs.