Publication date: Jan 18, 2025

The trial findings were combined with a second trial, TB-CHAMP, that took place in South Africa and involved the same treatment in children. Jointly, they showed that across both trials, levofloxacin reduced the risk of developing TB by 60 percent. Novel Bayesian analysis showed similar results for each trial, individually. In the trial, 2,041 adults and children living with a person with MDR-TB in the household were given six months of levofloxacin and monitored for 30 months. The trial also completed work on other important considerations such as acceptability of the drug regimen, feasibility, health economics, pharmacokinetics and antimicrobial resistance. The trial found that levofloxacin reduced the risk of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) in adults and adolescents by 45 percent. Together, the two studies demonstrated that levofloxacin could stop the risk of MDR-TB among family and other household members, curtailing the global impact of this dangerous pathogen. TB remains one of the top causes of death in children globally and is one of the top killers of children below five years of age.

Semantics