title: [Current chemotherapy of pulmonary tuberculosis].
abstract: Tuberculosis has today lost much of its dread for mankind: in 1976, 1823 persons contracted tuberculosis and 182 died of pulmonary tuberculosis in Switzerland. In contrast, 1375 died of pneumonia, 1309 of non-specific airway disease and 2202 of bronchial cancer in the same year. The present data on morbidity and mortality in Switzerland resemble those of the other industrial European countries or the USA. The decrease in morbidity and mortality of pulmonary tuberculosis was caused-among other factors-by chemotherapy. Chemotherapy not only profoundly changed the infectivity of tuberculous patients and made ambulatory, domiciliary treatment possible, but cured pulmonary tuberculosis. The introduction of the bactericidal rifampicin led to the latest major landmark in the chemotherapy of tuberculosis in the past 20 years: namely, short-course chemotherapy. Together with the other first-line drugs (isoniazid, streptomycin, ethambutol), rifampicin shortened the duration of chemotherapy from 18--24 to 9--12 months. Short-course chemotherapy is today the therapy of choice for most patients with pulmonary tuberculosis.
mesh_terms: D001500:BCG Vaccine; D006801:Humans; D012293:Rifampin / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D013557:Switzerland; D014397:Tuberculosis, Pulmonary / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000635:transmission
chemical_list: D001500:BCG Vaccine; D012293:Rifampin
vernacular_title: Die Chemotherapie der Lungentuberkulose heute.