Standard chemotherapy of tuberculosis in the Paraguay

Abstract

Chemotherapy against tuberculosis, shortened and directly supervised, is the most important strategy to ensure control of the disease globally, effectively and with better cost-benefit. The objective of this article is: make an updated review of tuberculosis chemotherapy in our country, from its beginnings to the date. Chemotherapy of tuberculosis as a national level program began in 1979, with the following scheme: isoniazid and tioacetazona, in a single tablet for 12 months, with streptomycin, injection in the first month of treatment, for all forms of tuberculosis. In 1984, the short duration treatment in the country was started, with the association of rifampicin more Isoprodian (isoniazid, protionamide and DDS), orally, for five months, indicated in all forms of tuberculosis. In 1994, began the current scheme of the chemotherapy of tuberculosis, of short duration on the basis of rifampicin, isoniazid, pyrazinamide and ethambutol, orally, for new cases of pulmonary tuberculosis with positive in our country at the end of the decade of the 70s, followed by the short-course chemotherapy based on rifampicin and isoniazid smear and others with severe forms of tuberculosis. Conclusion: the standard treatment of tuberculosis, was launched in the first four years of the decade of the 80, and short-course chemotherapy, supervised, in the decade of the 1990s, with the scheme which included rifampicin, isoniazid, pyrazinamide and ethambutol, as recommended by WHO.