WHO announces landmark changes in treatment of DR-TB
News & stories
Groundbreaking endTB Clinical Trial Results Published in The New England Journal of Medicine
On 29 January 2025, the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) published the manuscript of the endTB clinical trial results.
Requests to access the endTB data are now open (eDSI)
After 3 years of preparation, the endTB data is now open for requests!
The endTB-Q clinical trial results are in!
The endTB consortium has completed endTB-Q, the first Phase 3 randomized controlled trial to exclusively enroll people with pre-extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (pre-XDR-TB), a very hard-to-treat form of tuberculosis (TB).
The endTB-Q clinical trial results will be presented at the Union Conference in Bali
We are happy to announce that the endTB-Q clinical trial results will be presented for the first time at the Union World Conference on Lung Health, in Bali, Indonesia, November 12-16.
Major advance in the fight against MDR-TB: four new short and effective treatments from independent clinical trials approved by the WHO
The World Health Organization (WHO) recommended 3 new regimens for multidrug- or rifampicin-resistant tuberculosis (MDR/RR-TB), which were studied in the endTB clinical trial. This is a breakthrough in the fight against MDR-TB worldwide. endTB was conducted by a consortium of organisations led by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), Partners In Health (PIH), and Interactive Research and Development (IRD), and funded by Unitaid.
endTB-Q clinical trial partners announce completion of the Last Patient Last Visit
An endTB-Q study participant at a clinic in Pakistan. Credit: Asim Hafeez
The endTB-Q clinical trial, led by Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Partners In Health
endTB: Ministry of Health of Peru implements shortened treatment against tuberculosis
Socios En Salud is part of a global consortium that managed to shorten the treatment for patients with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis to nine months and without the use of injectables.
Early results to be presented by next World TB Day for pre-XDR TB
Have you ever heard about pre-XDR TB?
endTB clinical trial brings hope for treatment of MDR-TB patients co-infected with HIV
The endTB clinical trial results are in!
Six years after the launch of the endTB clinical trial, the results are now in! The trial offers multiple new shortened, all-oral drug regimens to treat adults and children with MDR-TB.
endTB trial results presentation at the Union World Conference
2023 Union World Conference on Lung Health, Paris, France
The endTB trial results will be presented, for the first time, at the Union World Conference on Lung Health, in Paris, France, on November 15-18.
You can find the details about the accepted sessions below. Join us at the conference!
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Q&A: How Clinical Trials Advanced Tuberculosis Treatment in Lesotho
Dr. Ninza Sheyo treats Khamokha Khamokha, a patient with MDR-TB, at PIH-supported Botsabelo Hospital in Maseru, Lesotho. Photo by Zack DeClerck/PIH
Tuberculosis (TB) is preventable and treatable. Despite this, 1.6 million people died from the infectious disease in 2021—a majority of whom live in low- and middle-income countries.
endTB trial data analysis now underway
Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF) Counsellor Sagar Kumar Patra accompanying the patient to endTB clinic in Aundh Chest Hospital, Pune, India.
Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Partners In Health (PIH) and Interactive Research and Development (IRD), with funding from global health agency
endTB clinical trial partners announce completion of the Last Patient Last Visit
endTB participant and Dra Jimena Ruiz, Hospital Nacional Sergio Bernales, Lima, Peru
The endTB clinical trial, funded by global health agency Unitaid, has reached another milestone.
A TB Patient in Kazakhstan Heals Through Support, Treatment
Maya, a patient in Kazakhstan who accessed tuberculosis care through Partners In Health and the endTB project. Photo courtesy of Gulmira Tanatarova.
Maya* vividly remembers the day she received her diagnosis. As a 21-year-old college student in Astana, Kazakhstan, she’d been running persistent fevers and waking up drenched in sweat. Her mother insisted she get checked out.
Tuberculosis Treatment Continues to Improve Lives, Well-Being in Lesotho
Itumeleng Nkhabu, a patient enrolled in the endTB study, at her home in Lesotho. Photo by Mpho Marole / PIH
Itumeleng Nkhabu, a 48-year-old widow, contracted tuberculosis (TB) in 2003. Then again in 2011. That was not the last time she got sick.
In 2018, she was diagnosed with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), a severe form of the respiratory disease.
Clinical trial advancing treatment for deadly TB superbug reaches critical milestone
Anna Usova/MSF
Paris/Boston, 24 March 2023 – This World Tuberculosis (TB) Day, the endTB-Q clinical trial marks a critical milestone as the final patient enrolls in the study.
Local Partners Key to Holistic TB Care in Kazakhstan
Gulnara Zhumakairova (center left) is among a small team of PIH Kazakhstan staff who connect tuberculosis patients with community organizations that provide food, diapers, and other support throughout their months of treatment. Photo courtesy of Gulnara Z
When a patient delivered her baby in the middle of her tuberculosis (TB) treatment, Gulnara Zhumakairova knew she would need to rally additional resources for the new mother, who was single and the sole caretaker of her newborn.
endTB Statement on WHO Rapid Communication on key changes to the treatment of drug-resistant tuberculosis
The endTB team welcomes the WHO Rapid Communication on updated guidance for the treatment of drug-resistant tuberculosis, which was released on 2 May 2022.1 This Rapid Communication continues a string of exciting advances in treatment for drug-resistant TB in recent years.
[Media] Ending TB by 2025 needs more clinical research on drug resistance
Atul Loke/Panos Pictures
Hindustan Time released a new article about endTB in India.
"Dr Lorenzo Guglielmetti is a doctor and the Médecins Sans Frontières director of the international endTB project. Dr Vijay Chavan is a chest specialist at the MSF TB Clinic in Mumbai.
GOOD SAFETY AND EFFICACY OF ANTI-TUBERCULOSIS TREATMENTS CONTAINING BEDAQUILINE OR DELAMANID, ADMINISTERED ALONE OR CONCOMITANTLY
credit photo : Atul Loke/Panos Pictures
Two recent drugs, bedaquiline and delamanid, are changing the game for patients with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis.
Innovative Worldwide Clinical Trial for Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis Completes Enrollment
Photos: Bithin Das / MDR-TB Treatment
BOSTON/PARIS, October 18, 2021 — 750 patient volunteers from four continents have enrolled in a trial that aims to find safer, shorter, and effective treatments for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), an airborne, infectious disease that has grown resistant to standard med
India: a new country for the endTB clinical trials
Photo: Atul Loke/Panos Pictures
Paris – Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders (MSF), together with its partners, is happy to announce that the endTB clinical trials have started in India.
New publication of the results from the endTB Observational Study
MDR-TB Treeatment preparation in the National Centre for Tuberculosis and Lung Disease in Tbilisi, Georgia
Results from the endTB Observational Study were published July 24, 2020, in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
Second endTB Clinical Trial In-Person Meeting
Participants to the 2nd endTB Clinical Trial In Person Meeting
After a first meeting in 2018, Médecins Sans Frontières, Sponsor of the endTB Clinical Trials, and its partners (PIH, IRD, HMS, ITM and Epicentre) have gathered for the second time the endTB Clinical Trial investigators and study coordinators in Paris.
Pakistan: endTB trial starts in Sindh province
(Photo: Jean-Pierre Amigo)
Karachi / Paris – Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and Interactive Research and Development (IRD) are pleased to announce the start of the endTB clinical trial in Pakistan
First endTB clinical trial participant completed follow-up
(Photo: Oksana Parafeniuk)
In March 2019, the endTB clinical trial celebrated a major milestone: the first participant completed participation in the trial. The patient, diagnosed with rifampin-resistant tuberculosis (RR-TB), started treatment and study participation in March 2017 in Tbilisi, Georgia.
Clinical Trial Investigators Meeting
endTB clinical trial investigators and study coordinators successfully complete first annual Investigators Meeting in Paris.
endTB clinical trial investigators and study coordinators successfully complete first annual Investigators Meeting in Paris.
endTB welcomes UNITAID’s Grant extension
Zugdidi TB Hospital, Georgia, 2017. Photo: Daro Sulakauri
Boston/Paris/Dubai, September 26, 2018. Partners In Health (PIH), Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), and Interactive Research & Development (IRD) welcome Unitaid’s commitment to ending Tuberculosis, by investing an additional $21 million in the endTB project.
The new look of MDR and XDR-TB treatment: the times they are a-changing
This blog first appeared in the Lancet Global Health: Reporting 6 months after more than 1200 study patients had started treatment, a new endTB study shows that the new TB drugs are safe and effective alternatives to toxic injectables.
MSF and endTB launch innovative drug-resistant TB clinical trial in South Africa
South Africa has one of the highest burdens of TB and (Drug Resistant) DR-TB in the world, with around 20,000 people diagnosed with DR-TB in 2015. Photo: Sydelle WIllow Smith
MSF and its endTB partners have launched the latest site in the clinical trial: South Africa.
Photo story: Tackling multidrug-resistant TB in Lesotho
(Graeme Williams/Unitaid)
Limpho Taka, a 47-year old patient with HIV and multidrug-resistant TB, (MDR-TB) lives in Mpokochela, a village in the Drakenberg mountains of Lesotho. It takes him three hours on his horse to reach the Bobete clinic where he receives treatment for MDR-TB.
OP-ED: The neglected solution to the TB crisis
(Photo: Daro Sulakauri)
Dr. Paul Farmer, a founder of Partners In Health, and Dr. Joanne Liu, the international president of Médecins Sans Frontières, have published a jointly written op-ed on the inadequate global response to the TB crisis – and why the endTB initiative was founded.
Q&A: endTB clinical trial, one year on
On World TB Day Dr. Lorenzo Guglielmetti, endTB clinical trial co-principal investigator, takes stock of progress in the trial's first year.
WATCH: Five deadly barriers to effective TB treament
Tuberculosis (TB) remains the leading cause of death in South Africa, and yet it is curable. Why haven’t we overcome this fatal disease? At every level of TB diagnosis and care there are challenges. Here are five key strategies where governments, donors and communities should focus efforts to end the deadly TB epidemic.
Tuberculosis: "An obvious, urgent focus for MSF"
An MSF clinician inspects a chest X-ray in Kyrgyzstan. (Pierre-Yves Bernard/MSF)
In this Q&A, Dr. Francis Varaine, endTB project leader and leader of the MSF working group on tuberculosis, explains MSF’s priorities over the next 10 years.
Statement regarding the closure of patient enrollment in the endTB Georgia clinical trial site
Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders (MSF) announces the closure of patient enrollment in the endTB clinical trial in Georgia.
“Some of our patients simply can’t wait for clinical trials”
Patient holding his medication, he takes up to 26 pills a day to treat XDR-TB. Here he holds his morning selection, which includes delamanid, one of the newest DR-TB drugs, which he is taking for the first time today.
Published in the Lancet, new MSF findings on the combined use of bedaquiline and delamanid show promising results.
Georgia on the frontlines of tackling drug-resistant tuberculosis : a photo story
Mzia Lekveishvili/Unitaid
Georgia continues to struggle with tuberculosis (TB), today’s leading infectious disease killer, and its drug-resistant forms. The homeless, unemployed, migrants, prisoners, and people who excessively consume alcohol are among the most affected.
EVENTS: endTB at Union 2017 (11-14 October)
Dr Iza Jikia (left) Dr Nino Dzidzikashvili (centre) review an DR-TB patient’s chest X-ray at the National Centre for Tuberculosis and Lung Disease in Georgia’s capital, Tbilisi. (Daro Sulakauri / MSF)
Belarus: ‘My doctors told me – this is the only chance’
38 year old Yury had a form of TB that was resistant to both 1st and 2nd line TB drugs. After two years of treatment that wasn’t working, he was left with no other options, until MSF started a new program in the country in 2015. (Victoria Gendina / MSF)
Yury, 38, is celebrating a moment he thought would never arrive: he has been cured of a complicated form of Tuberculosis (TB), an infectious disease caused by mycobacteria which usually attacks the lungs.
Fighting tuberculosis with open-source tech
How do you bring advanced data systems to field hospitals without internet or IT staff?
Armenia: Fighting two diseases at once
Just a short time ago, Hakobyan was suffering from two deadly diseases: hepatitis C and drug-resistant tuberculosis - neither of which could be treated properly. Today, new drugs have put him on a path to recovery. Watch the short film.
Peru: New drugs, new hope to end TB
Field technician Gaby Merlin Contreras provides the new TB drug, Bedaquiline, to a patient in Lima, Peru. (Photos by William Castro Rodríguez / Partners In Health)
For the first time in 50 years, two new drugs are available to patients battling the most trenchant forms of tuberculosis.
Pakistan: Rehana and Naveed's story
Two patient stories from IRD's project in Pakistan.
endTB partnership launches clinical trial to target toughest strains of tuberculosis
Nurses prepare patients’ treatments in the pharmacy of the ambulatory ward at the National Centre for Tuberculosis and Lung Disease in Georgia’s capital, Tbilisi.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), Partners In Health (PIH) and other leading medical organizations have launched a major clinical trial which seeks to revolutionize treatment for the toughest strains of tuberculosis (TB).
Clinical trial: Who, what, where, why?
Wondering what endTB’s clinical trial aims to achieve, exactly? Watch this MSF-produced video to find out more.
Georgia: Fighting the 'dragon with nine heads'
TB doctor Irma Davitadze at work at the Regional Center of Infectious Pathology, AIDS and Tuberculosis in Batumi, a beach resort town on the Black Sea. MSF has worked here since 2014. (Daro Sulakauri)
Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis is a mounting health crisis, but a new MSF initiative could lead to better treatments for patients around the world.
EVENTS: endTB at Union conference (26-29 October 2016)
Medical staff work in the ambulatory ward at the National Centre for Tuberculosis and Lung Disease in Georgia’s capital, Tbilisi. Patient Goderdzi Rajabishvili (left) recovers from his morning infusion of imipenem, an antibiotic drug used for the treatmen
Attending the Union conference in Liverpool this week (26-29 October) ?
Don’t miss these events from endTB and partners.
A surgeon, a student, a salon owner – and tuberculosis
A new tuberculosis drug, Bedaquiline, reaches Kazakhstan for the first time, thanks to Partners In Health's work on the endTB project. Photo by Yekaterina Sahabutdinova / Partners In Health
Three of the first patients who received Bedaquiline through endTB, led by Partners in Health in Kazakhstan, tell their stories of having MDR-TB.
First patients start endTB program in Peru
Diego (center, name changed), receives advice from PIH community health worker Verónica Quispe and PIH nursing technician Yecela Rodríguez at the Punchauca Health Center in Carabayllo, Peru. (William Castro Rodríguez / Socios En Salud)
Partners In Health in Peru started the first set of XDR-TB patients on a new drug regimen now available through endTB, and results so far border on the miraculous.
Blog: I'm cured, but my fight against TB isn't over
Elizabeth Wangeci
An XDR-TB patient describes her joy after an arduous recovery -- and the long, toxic treatment it took to get there.
Lesotho: first patients enrolled in revolutionary tuberculosis project
Dr. Danny Puga (left), and Dr. KJ Seung (right) conduct an electrocardiogram on one of the first multidrug-resistant tuberculosis patients to be enrolled in the endTB project in Lesotho. (Photo: Lan Nguyen / Partners In Health)
Partners In Health’s Dr. KJ Seung, an endTB project leader, discusses rolling out treatment in Lesotho.
MSF statement on a donation of TB drugs from Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.
MSF medical staff in Armenia review a patient's drug prescription. (Andrea Bussotti/MSF)
MSF appreciates Otsuka’s donation of 400 treatments of a novel drug, delamanid, which enables MSF and its partners to initially treat a specific number of MDR-TB patients worldwide.
VIDEO: Multi-drug resistant tuberculosis: Speeding up research efforts
Why is MDR-TB such a pressing concern? This MSF video explains.
Leading medical organizations team up to bring new TB treatments to those in need
National TB Centre, Abovian, Armenia. Dr Shahidul Islam, an MSF TB doctor, examines a patient on the DR TB ward in the national TB centre. Many patients are unable to complete the grueling course of drugs. (Bruno De Cock / MSF)
Partners In Health (PIH), Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), Interactive Research and Development (IRD) and their financial partner UNITAID will start in April the endTB project, a partnership aimed at radically changing the management of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB).
