KDCA Expands National Diagnostic and Analysis System for Antituberculosis Drug Susceptibility

Tuberculosis Screening Image

Starting this year, the existing two tuberculosis drug susceptibility testing systems will be expanded, broadening treatment options for patients with drug-resistant tuberculosis in Korea.

On the 19th, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) announced the operation of the 'Pretomanid Tuberculosis Drug Susceptibility Testing System.' Pretomanid is one of the new tuberculosis drugs developed in 50 years and has been recognized for health insurance coverage by the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service starting this year.

Additionally, the KDCA is promoting improvements to the tuberculosis drug susceptibility testing system to enhance treatment efficiency for tuberculosis patients. A national drug-resistant tuberculosis testing system will be established and operated, targeting domestic tuberculosis patients, including tuberculosis bacteria identification diagnostics, drug susceptibility testing, and analysis of domestic drug-resistant tuberculosis occurrence. In December last year, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended a short-course treatment regimen including Pretomanid as a priority for treating multidrug-resistant tuberculosis. Accordingly, the KDCA plans to secure a standard susceptibility testing method for this drug and analyze resistance status among domestic tuberculosis patients this year.

Furthermore, starting next month, the KDCA will add Pretomanid drug susceptibility testing to the 'New Drug Conventional Susceptibility Testing System' project for diagnosing extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis. The KDCA is also conducting the 'Quinolone Rapid Susceptibility Testing System' project using gene-based analysis methods to streamline tuberculosis drug susceptibility testing and enable rapid selection of tuberculosis treatments.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.