Vitamin C May Kill Drug-Resistant TB

While poking around in the laboratory to see what might help cure cases of tuberculosis that are resistant to drug treatment, researchers, almost by accident, have found that adding vitamin C to a drug regimen may be the key.

The discovery at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute indicates that putting vitamin C into TB treatments may also abbreviate the amount of time TB patients have to take drugs. Currently, many TB victims have to endure a six-month round of pharmaceuticals.

Yearly, almost 9 million people around the world get TB, and more than 1 million people die of the disease. More than 600,000 people develop TB that resists the standard drug treatment.