Additional evidence to support the phasing-out of treatment category II regimen for pulmonary tuberculosis in Peru

The effectiveness of the World Health Organization's (WHO) treatment category II regimen for tuberculosis in 124 patients was compared to that of 1147 patients receiving treatment category I in Lima, Peru following WHO's guidelines. Drug susceptibility test was available for 85% of patients. Prevalence of multi drug resistance and streptomycin resistance were 5.1% and 20.7%, respectively. Overall cure rate for regimen II was lower than that of regimen I: 67.8% (95% CI: 58.9-75.6.) vs 77.8% (95% CI: 75.3-80.2), p=0.014. Multi-drug resistance exerted a profound effect on cure rates in both regimens. Our results support the phasing-out of treatment category II regimen in Peru.