TY - JOUR KW - Animals KW - Clinical Trials as Topic KW - Dapsone KW - Drug Resistance, Microbial KW - Humans KW - leprosy KW - Mice KW - Mycobacterium leprae KW - Rifampin AU - Rees R J AU - Pearson J M AU - Waters M F AB -

Rifampicin showed high activity against experimental leprosy, inhibiting the multiplication of dapsone-sensitive and dapsone-resistant strains of Mycobacterium leprae in mice fed 5 mg./kg. body weight. In a formal pilot-type trial on six previously untreated patients with active lepromatous leprosy, rifampicin (600 mg. daily by mouth) was as effective as standard treatment with dapsone. Myco. leprae, however, appeared to be killed more rapidly by rifampicin than by dapsone or other antileprosy drugs so far studied. This was confirmed on a further 10 patients, including two with dapsone resistance, and from the infectivity in mice of bacilli recovered from patients during treatment with rifampicin or dapsone. These results are consistent with the bactericidal activity of rifampicin against other micro-organisms, which could be important to the chemotherapy of leprosy, since all antileprosy drugs in current use are bacteriostatic.

BT - British medical journal C1 - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/4903972?dopt=Abstract CN - REES1970 DA - 1970 Jan 10 DO - 10.1136/bmj.1.5688.89 IS - 5688 J2 - Br Med J LA - eng N2 -

Rifampicin showed high activity against experimental leprosy, inhibiting the multiplication of dapsone-sensitive and dapsone-resistant strains of Mycobacterium leprae in mice fed 5 mg./kg. body weight. In a formal pilot-type trial on six previously untreated patients with active lepromatous leprosy, rifampicin (600 mg. daily by mouth) was as effective as standard treatment with dapsone. Myco. leprae, however, appeared to be killed more rapidly by rifampicin than by dapsone or other antileprosy drugs so far studied. This was confirmed on a further 10 patients, including two with dapsone resistance, and from the infectivity in mice of bacilli recovered from patients during treatment with rifampicin or dapsone. These results are consistent with the bactericidal activity of rifampicin against other micro-organisms, which could be important to the chemotherapy of leprosy, since all antileprosy drugs in current use are bacteriostatic.

PY - 1970 SP - 89 EP - 92 T2 - British medical journal TI - Experimental and clinical studies on rifampicin in treatment of leprosy. VL - 1 SN - 0007-1447 ER -