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I'm Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Health
Report.
Research scientists say they have discovered a new drug that will help
the fight against the disease tuberculosis. The substance is called
R207910. Experts say it has been shown in animal experiments to clear
tuberculosis infections two times faster than other medicines. Scientists
have just begun to test the experimental drug in people.
The researchers described the drug in Science magazine.
Tuberculosis infects at least eight million people each year. It also
is the second leading cause of death around the world. The disease kills
two million to three million people each year. Only Acquired Immune
Deficiency Syndrome(AIDS) kills more. 11 million people are infected with
both tuberculosis and the virus that causes AIDS.
Tuberculosis spreads easily through the air, by coughing, sneezing or
even talking. But people infected with the tuberculosis mycobacterium will not necessarily
become sick. The organism can live in the body for years before becoming
active.
Koen Andries led the effort to develop the new anti-tuberculosis drug.
Doctor Andries is a researcher with the drug maker Johnson and Johnson in
Belgium. He said the new drug is the first such medicine to be tested in
people since rifampin was developed in 1963.
Today, rifampin is used in combination with two other medicines to
treat tuberculosis. The drugs must be taken for up to nine months. But
experts say the drug treatment is no longer effective against the disease
in many parts of the world. They say this is because the mycobacterium has
developed defenses against the treatment. Doctors say the resistance
resulted from patients failing to follow directions for the medicines.
The experimental drug is one of a new group of chemicals called
diarylquinolines. Doctors say it works differently than other
anti-tuberculosis drugs. Older drugs work by interfering with the
manufacture of different systems in the mycobacterium.
Doctor Andries says the new drug blocks the energy supply of the
organism. He also says the drug appears to be most effective when given in
combination with the older drugs.
Limited human tests of the new drug have shown that it is safe. But
some researchers warn that it may not work as well in people as it has in
mice.
This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk.
This is Gwen Outen. | 
