New TAG Community Resources on Drug-Resistant TB
1 April 2025
An Activist’s Guide to Shorter Treatment for Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis
In 2024, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a rapid communication with key updates to its guidelines for treating drug-resistant TB. The six-month regimen — known as BPaL(M) — recommended by the WHO since 2022, remains the preferred treatment option for drug-resistant TB. The new WHO guidelines also support the use of six- and nine-month, pretomanid-sparing regimens. These alternative regimens now endorsed by the WHO are especially important for enabling children, younger adolescents, pregnant women and persons, and other populations that are otherwise excluded from access to the six-month BPaL(M) regimen to benefit from shorter treatment regimens for drug-resistant TB.
Treatment Action Group (TAG) released a new 2025 update of An Activist’s Guide to Shorter Treatment for Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis laying out what community advocates need to know about WHO-recommended regimens for drug-resistant TB. The Activist Guide reviews the evidence-base behind these regimens, important considerations for key populations affected by TB, the access landscape, and more. The publication is intended to equip advocates with information they need to formulate arguments and push for universal implementation of the best available treatments.
Community Materials on Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis
To accompany the updated Activist’s Guide to Shorter Treatment for Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis, TAG also developed three additional educational materials to support community-based and civil society organizations leading treatment literacy, peer support, and community-led monitoring activities:
“Options for Treating Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis: Which Regimen is Right for Me?” compares key attributes, risks and benefits, and considerations related to the preferences and needs of the person undergoing treatment that should be discussed when determining which regimen to use.
“Side Effects and Clinical and Laboratory-Based Monitoring of Treatment for Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis: What to Expect” walks through lab tests and clinical exams that people should expect to receive prior to treatment initiation, at regular intervals during treatment, and in response to specific problems or concerns.
“Talking with People About Your Diagnosis of Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis” is written to help people recently diagnosed with drug-resistant TB think about how to approach disclosing and discussing their diagnosis with family and other close contacts.
Published early this year, TAG’s “TB Treatment Regimen Cheat Sheet” provides a snapshot of information on the duration, indicated population, composition, and price of WHO-recommended regimens, and drug-drug interactions with antiretrovirals to be aware of.
