Directly observed therapy for the treatment of tuberculosis--evidence based dosage guidelines.

Tuberculosis is a communicable disease with public health implications and effective treatment is essential for control of the disease and prevention of the emergence of drug resistant strains. Drug therapy for this disease is well established and discussion now surrounds frequency of administration, duration of treatment and methods of improving compliance. Directly observed intermittent therapy of tuberculosis is supported by the World Health Authority and has become the standard of care in the U.S.A. Available dosage guidelines for directly observed therapy are only supported by limited data. A literature review of recent studies with clinical outcome measures was conducted. Following this review evidence based guidelines have been produced.