Associated Press | Earth Times News

The South African Medical Research Council says patients with tuberculosis should be more involved in decisions about their treatment.

Tuberculosis treatment takes many months and many patients fail to complete the course of drugs prescribed because of structural factors such as poverty and gender discrimination, social context factors, health service factors and personal factors such as attitudes towards treatment and illness, according to the study published in PLoS Medicine.

Salla Munro of the South African Medical Research Council with colleagues in South Africa, Norway and Britain, conducted a systematic review of research into adherence to TB treatment that has been carried out using "qualitative" methods.

In other words, the researchers searched the medical literature for studies where patients and their families had been asked to say how they felt about their treatment.

The researchers conclude patients often take their TB medications under very difficult conditions and that they cannot control many of the factors that prevent them from taking their drugs.