Harnessing Novel Quantitative Pharmacology Approaches to Optimize the Treatment of Children With Tuberculosis.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that a million children each year develop tuberculosis [1], with models suggesting that only a third of these children are diagnosed and started on treatment [2]. Although the WHO-recommended treatment regimen for children with drug-susceptible tuberculosis is generally well tolerated and leads to good treatment outcomes, 6 months of daily treatment can be challenging for children and families. For multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis resistant to isoniazid and rifampicin), treatment regimens are long (often for u003e18 months) and are associated with significant toxicity. There is, therefore, a pressing case for new shorter, well-tolerated regimens that can treat both drug-susceptible and multidrug-resistant organisms.