STLS

1. Counsel and reassure the patient as the common occurring adverse effects usually resolve with time.
2. Advise the patient to take all the drugs together.
3. Advise patient to take light meal (biscuits, bread, rice etc.) before taking drugs.
4. Inform patients that they may take drugs embedded in banana or at the bedtime to reduce their associated side effects.
5. Encourage patients to keep themselves hydrated by increasing fluid intake.

Adverse Drug Reactions(ADR) are classified into serious and non-serious ADR depending upon the intensity of symptoms experienced by the patient. Below is the brief overview

Adverse Drug Reactions(ADR) are unwanted or harmful reactions experienced following the use of a drug or combination of drugs and are suspected to be related to a drug. Severity of adverse effects varies from tolerable and mild ADRs to serious and life threatening ADRs.

Figure: Various Adverse Drug Reactions

Common ADR Symptoms:

When a TB patient consumes all the doses under the prescribed regimen, then Treatment Outcome is declared for a Patient.

To know the TB treatment response and to determine that if patient is cured, TB patients are clinically evaluated at the end of every four weeks of treatment, and they are also followed up by performing sputum test at end of each treatment phase (i.e. Intensive phase and Continuation phase)

TB patients during clinical evaluations are assessed to

• New case - A TB patient who has never had treatment for TB or has taken anti-TB drugs for less than one month is considered as a new case. 
• Previously treated patients have received 1 month or more of anti-TB drugs in the past. They could be further classified as:
• Recurrent TB case - A TB patient previously declared as successfully treated(cured/treatment completed) and is subsequently found to be microbiologically confirmed TB case is a recurrent TB case. 

A regimen means a prescribed systematic form of treatment for a course of drug(s). For TB treatment, Multi drug combination of regimen is followed. 

All TB drug regimens have an initial intensive phase(IP) followed by a continuation phase(CP). 

Following are some of the main TB drug regimens used based on the drug resistance pattern detected for TB patients.

What is Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis?

• Drug-Resistant TB occurs when bacteria become resistant to the drugs used to treat TB. This means that the drug can no longer kill the TB bacteria.

• Multidrug-resistant TB (MDR TB) is a type of DR-TB where TB bacteria is resistant to both Isoniazid and Rifampicin, the two most potent anti-TB drugs.

The World Health Organisation End TB Strategy, adopted by the World Health Assembly in 2014, aims to end the global TB epidemic. The strategy draws on the opportunities presented by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially those goals aimed at achieving universal health coverage and social protection from disease.

The table given below provides information on the vision, goal, milestones and targets for the End TB Strategy.