Improving Treatment Completion Rates for Latent Tuberculosis Infection: A Review of Two Treatment Regimens at a Community Health Center

Background. Prophylactic treatment of latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) is necessary for controlling TB in low-incidence settings. However, treatment is often limited by poor completion rates. Methods. At a community health center serving low-income Hispanics, treatment completion among patients accepting 12 weekly doses of isoniazid (INH) plus rifapentine (RPT) administered as directly observed therapy (DOT) was compared with that among patients accepting nine months of daily self-administered INH during 2012 and 2013 (n=139). Results. Among patients who agreed to treatment, INH-RPT combination therapy was associated with higher completion rates (OR 3.06; 95% CI, 1.23–7.62; p=.016) when compared to INH only. Overall completion rates were 77.8% (35/45) for INH-RPT combination therapy and 52.1% (49/94) for INH monotherapy. Conclusions. High completion rates for LTBI treatment can be achieved at a community health center using INH-RPT administered via DOT. Greater success treating with INH-RPT may be attributed to DOT strategy and a shorter treatment regimen.