The government will roll out a shorter regimen for persons who have been diagnosed with multi-drug resistant tuberculosis from July 1.
This adoption comes a year after the World Health Organization rolled out new guidelines on diagnosing and treating such TB patients.
Those who will be put on this regimen will be on treatment for a period of between 9 – 12 months.
Currently those who are suffering from multi drug resistance TB are on medication for 24 months.
According to the WHO, the conventional treatment regimens, which take 18–24 months to complete, yield low cure rates.
This is attributed to the fact that patients find it very hard to keep taking second-line drugs, which can be quite toxic, for prolonged periods of time.
They therefore often stop treatment or are lost to follow-ups in health services.
Close to 600 people have multi-drug resistant TB in Kenya.
Those who do not complete their drugs, skip medication, or live in a region with high incidences of drug resistant TB are at risk of contracting the disease.
Enos Masini, head of the national leprosy and TB program, however said that those still taking medication under this regimen will not be affected.
"A lot of planning is required to start that regimen. One needs to do drugs safety monitoring to establish whether they have any side effects on the patient," Masini said.
The shorter regimen is recommended for patients diagnosed with uncomplicated MDR-TB, for example those individuals whose MDR-TB is not resistant to drugs used to treat MDR-TB - commonly known as “second-line drugs”.
It is also recommended for individuals who have not yet been treated with second line drugs.