Comparison of a conventional and an initial 2-month intensive drug regimen for treating pulmonary tuberculosis in Swaziland

In an area where default from out-patient treatment for tuberculosis is very frequent and leads to 16% known failures on the 2SHT/16HT regimen, a 1-year follow-up study was carried out on 201 new sputum smear-positive patients who were hospitalised for the first 2 months of treatment. The first 103 patients were treated with 2SHT/10HT and the remaining 98 with 2SHRZ/10HT. In the first group 15 (17%) out of 89 traced patients were sputum-positive on a single smear after 1 year, compared with 1 (1%) out of 78 in the second group (P