[Tuberculosis annual report 2008--Series 8. Treatment of TB (1)]

The standard treatment of tuberculosis (TB) is the key to its control. Here we report on the statistics of treatment history and initial regimen for treating TB in 2008. The frequency of retreatment among newly notified TB patients might be partly a indicator of previous insufficient treatment. In 2008, 24,760 TB patients were newly notified. Of those, 1,836 cases were reported as having had previous treatment and 424 cases were reported as unknown treatment history. The proportion of retreatment was 7.5%, excluding those of unknown treatment history. The proportion of retreatment among newly notified TB patients increased with age from their 20s (4.0%) to their 70s (9.4%). Regarding the year of previous treatment, the number of cases having received previous treatment in 2007 was the most cases (n = 187). The total number of cases whose previous treatment had begun in 2007 or 2008 was 220, i.e. 12.0% of all retreatment cases in 2008. On the other hand, the number of cases having received previous treatment in 1950s was also significant (n = 234, 12.7%). As initial treatment regimen, the combination of INH, RFP, PZA+EB/SM is recommended by Japanese Society for Tuberculosis. This regimen was initially used in 79.1% of all forms of TB patients aged 15-79 years old, excluding those cases whose treatment regimen was unknown. The data on duration of having actually received PZA was adopted to add to the central TB surveillance database from 2007. The number of cases who started TB treatment including PZA in 2007 was 15,282. Of those, 11,817 cases had completed TB treatment by the end of 2008, but 8.4% of them could not take PZA fully for 2 months.