Immunotherapy with mycobacterium vaccae in the treatment of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis

Abstract EN

Forty-one patients suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis, due to organisms resistant to a number of antituberculosis drugs, entered a study of immunotherapy with Mycobacterium vaccae as an adjunct to their continuing chemotherapy.

Four patients were cured by a single dose and 7 more responded to 3 or 4 spaced doses.

Bacteriological cure was accompanied by a marked increase in body weight and a fall in ESK.

A short period of previous chemotherapy was associated with cure after a single dose and men responded better to the immunotherapy than did women.

This success can be compared with recent past experience in which only one such patient out of more than 100 was cured with chemotherapy alone.

The potential impor¬tance of the new treatment makes Its further investigation a major priority.