WASHINGTON, Dec. 10 (UPI) -- A chemical compound that failed as an inflammation treatment is now the most promising new tuberculosis medicine in 40 years, scientists say.
The drug, a potent antibiotic, has shown, in animals at least, it has many advantages over current TB drugs, the Washington Post said Friday.
Among infectious diseases, tuberculosis is the second leading cause of death worldwide, surpassed only by AIDS. Spread easily by coughing, the disease sickens more than 8 million people every year and kills 2 million to 3 million annually.
The new compound, known simply as R207910, has been given to only 50 or so healthy people for safety testing so far.
But, in animal studies, described in Friday's issue of the journal Science, the compound easily overcame the two biggest hurdles facing TB therapies -- their ineffectiveness against resistant strains and the long period of treatment required to achieve a cure.
