India, Feb. 10 -- The Maharashtra government from next month will implement a six-month treatment regimen for drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB), significantly reducing the current two-year treatment duration. The new drug regime will increase adherence and cut down mortality, said the public health officials.

According to the officials, the new regimen, called BPaL/BPaLM, includes medications bedaquiline, pretomanid, linezolid, and moxifloxacin and will be given to multi-drug-resistant TB patients. This new drug regime will be given under the National TB Elimination Programme (NTEP) to all adult patients, they said.

Dr Sandeep Sangale, joint director (TB and leprosy), Maharashtra, said, "The new drug regime has been proven to be safe, mo...