SEARCHED TERM
Second-line drug
DEFINITION
Agent usually reserved for the treatment of drug-resistant tuberculosis. First-line tuberculosis drugs used to treat drug-susceptible tuberculosis – ethambutol, isoniazid and pyrazinamide – may also be used in MDR-TB regimens.
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SOURCE DEFINITION
Agent reserved for the treatment of drug-resistant TB. First-line TB medicines used to treat drug-susceptible TB – ethambutol, isoniazid and pyrazinamide – may also be used in MDR-TB regimens (streptomycin is now considered a second-line TB medicine and used only as a substitute for amikacin when amikacin is not available or there is confirmed resistance to it).
OTHER DEFINITIONS
Combination chemotherapy for drug-resistant tuberculosis which includes drugs other than those in Group 1
Therapeutic agent that is not the drug of choice or the first drug normally used to treat a particular condition. Generally, second-line agents are used when standard “first-line” therapy fails. MDR-TB regimens use second-line drugs
Used when the first-line drugs are no longer effective to cure a patient. In the case of tuberculosis, they are less effective and have many more side-effects than first-line drugs
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