Video directly observed therapy for treatment of tuberculosis is patient-oriented and cost-effective

Curing tuberculosis (TB) entails adhering to a multidrug regimen for ≥6 months [1]. Failure to take the medications as prescribed can lead to treatment failure, drug resistance and further spread of TB, resulting in morbidity and death for the patient and a threat to public health. Treatment failure is the most important cause of drug-resistant TB, which is much more long, expensive and toxic to treat, and the outcomes of which are still unsatisfactory [2–4]. The public health consequences of nonadherence to TB treatment led to directly observed therapy (DOT) becoming the universal standard of care [5–8]. While DOT is a best practice model for TB treatment, it is labour intensive and can itself be a barrier to effective therapy because of its inconvenience for patients. The expense may be prohibitive for cash-strapped public healthcare systems [9]. A video-based approach is a novel, patient-oriented strategy for TB treatment <http://ow.ly/JDQCi> The authors would like to thank Golnaz Ebrahimi (University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA) and Marybeth Allen (University of Louisville, Louisville, KY, USA) for their editorial assistance.