2005-1-4
I'm Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Health Report.
Research scientists say they have discovered a new drug that will
help the fight against the disease tuberculosis. The substance is
called R-two-zero-seven-nine-one-zero. Experts say it has been shown
in animal experiments to clear tuberculosis infections two times
faster than other medicines. Scientists have just begun to test the
experimental drug in people.
The researchers described the drug in Science magazine.
Tuberculosis infects at least eight million people each year. It
also is the second leading cause of death around the world. The
disease kills two million to three million people each year. Only
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome kills more. Eleven million
people are infected with both tuberculosis and the virus that causes
AIDS.
Tuberculosis spreads easily through the air, by coughing,
sneezing or even talking. But people infected with the tuberculosis
mycobacterium will not necessarily become sick. The organism can
live in the body for years before becoming active.
Koen Andries led the effort to develop the new anti-tuberculosis
drug. Doctor Andries is a researcher with the drug maker Johnson and
Johnson in Belgium. He said the new drug is the first such medicine
to be tested in people since rifampin was developed in
nineteen-sixty-three.
Today, rifampin is used in combination with two other medicines
to treat tuberculosis. The drugs must be taken for up to nine
months. But experts say the drug treatment is no longer effective
against the disease in many parts of the world. They say this is
because the mycobacterium has developed defenses against the
treatment. Doctors say the resistance resulted from patients failing
to follow directions for the medicines.
The experimental drug is one of a new group of chemicals called
diarylquinolines. Doctors say it works differently than other
anti-tuberculosis drugs. Older drugs work by interfering with the
manufacture of different systems in the mycobacterium.
Doctor Andries says the new drug blocks the energy supply of the
organism. He also says the drug appears to be most effective when
given in combination with the older drugs.
Limited human tests of the new drug have shown that it is safe.
But some researchers warn that it may not work as well in people as
it has in mice.
This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia
Kirk. This is Gwen Outen.