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Tuberculosis - What are Directly Observed Therapies?
Tuberculosis (TB) has managed to reach the same ranking as HIV as one of the leading infectious disease cause of death worldwide and incurs a global economic burden of over $12 billion annually. Directly observed therapy (DOT) recommends that TB patients complete the course of treatment under direct observation of treatment support who’s been trained and overseen by health services to ensure that patients are taking their drugs as instructed too. Though the current WHO End TB Strategy does not mention DOT, only “supportive treatment supervision by treatment partners”, many TB programs still utilize it even though it has not been demonstrated to be statistically significantly superior to self-administered treatment in making sure treatment success or cure.