[Tuberculosis annual report 2009--series 8. Treatment of TB(1)]

The standard treatment of tuberculosis (TB) is the key to its control. Here we report the statistics of treatment history and the initial regimen for treating TB in 2009. In 2009, 24,170 TB patients were newly notified. Of those, 1751 cases were reported as having had previous treatment and 410 cases were reported as having an unknown treatment history. The proportion of patients receiving retreatment was 7.4%, excluding those of unknown treatment history. The proportion of those receiving retreatment among newly notified TB patients increased with age from those at 20-24 years old (3.2%) to those at 80-84 years old (9.3%). The frequency of retreatment among newly notified TB patients might be partly an indicator of previous insufficient treatment. Regarding the year of previous treatment, the greatest number of cases reported having received previous treatment in 2008 (n=194). The total number of cases whose previous treatment had begun in 2008 or 2009 was 224, i.e. 12.8% of all retreatment cases in 2009. On the other hand, the number of cases having received previous treatment in the 1950s was also significant (n=219, 12.5%). As the initial treatment regimen, the combination of INH (isoniazid), RFP (rifampicin), PZA (pyrazinamide)+EB (ethambutol) or SM (streptomycin) is recommended by the Japanese Society for Tuberculosis. This regimen was initially used in 80.8% 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 added to the central TB surveillance database starting in 2007. The number of cases who started TB treatment including PZA in 2008 was 15,146. Of those, 11,997 cases had completed TB treatment by the end of 2009, but 9.9% of them could not take PZA fully for 2 months.