Story 2026 – Making long-acting tuberculosis treatment easier for patients

Tuberculosis (TB) in humans has existed for thousands of years and remains one of the world’s deadliest infectious diseases. Despite the availability of an effective treatment, patients are required to take months of daily oral pills, at times causing uncomfortable side effects and making adherence a challenge. When patients stop treatment early, they are more likely to relapse or develop multidrug-resistant TB, which is even more difficult to treat.

Patients, health workers and experts agree: A long-acting treatment option would be easier to follow, increasing completion rates and reducing the spread of TB. That’s why FHI 360 — in partnership with the Gates Medical Research Institute and with funding from the Gates Foundation — is implementing a study to understand the preferences of potential end-users and providers for a hypothetical long-acting injectable TB treatment.

Through interviews with decision-makers and a large-scale survey with TB patients, survivors and providers, we’re studying how this future option, which could treat millions, might be accepted by patients and adopted by health care workers, as well as the key factors that could support its uptake. A pilot study was conducted in the Philippines, and FHI 360 is now expanding and replicating the study in Indonesia and South Africa. We’re also analyzing data from a similar study in Tanzania.