Updated guidelines offer better ways to diagnose and treat tuberculosis

These include more supervision via video rather than in person

- Salma Khalik

Guidelines for the treatment of tuberculosis (TB) in Singapore have been updated, following the development of newer and better ways of diagnosing and treating the disease in recent years.

Among the changes is to have more patients who are on directly observed therapy (DOT) be supervised through live video instead of in person.

In the update published online in the Academy of Medicine's journal, Annals, on March 19, the 21-member guideline development team said there have been major new advances since the guidelines were first published in 2016.

These include new drug regimens that can reduce the treatment time for patients from six to nine months now to four months, the use of artificial intelligence to aid radiological screening and next-generation genetic sequencing for drug susceptibility.

Commissioned by the Ministry of Health's (MOH) National Tuberculosis Programme, the guidelines are to standardise and improve the clinical management of TB infection and disease in Singapore, said the team.

The update also recommends the use of video-observed treatment (VOT) in lieu of direct observation.

Patients with infectious TB, who make up the bulk of TB cases, are currently required by law to go personally to a polyclinic or the TB Control Unit at Tan Tock Seng Hospital to take their medications in front of a healthcare worker.