Bedaquiline Monotherapy for Multibacillary Leprosy

BACKGROUND: Standard multidrug therapy for leprosy may be associated with severe side effects, which add to the stigma and discrimination that affect persons with the disease. In addition, the threat posed by drug-resistant leprosy shows the need for alternative drug combinations and shorter, safer regimens of multidrug therapy. METHODS: (measured by a quantitative reverse-transcriptase-polymerase-chain-reaction assay). RESULTS: growth had decreased from 100% in all the patients at baseline to no growth after 4 weeks of bedaquiline monotherapy. After 7 weeks of treatment, all the patients showed improvement in the appearance of skin lesions as compared with baseline. Seven patients had at least one adverse event (all grade 1 or 2) during treatment. CONCLUSIONS: by 4 weeks of treatment and led to improvement in the appearance of skin lesions by 7 weeks. (Funded by Janssen Research and Development; ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT03384641.).