Safety and Efficacy of Oral Immunomodulator in Tuberculosis (TB) and TB/HIV Patients

Treatment of multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) is 100 times more expensive than treatment of drug-susceptible TB, requiring intensive clinical management for prolonged time (18-24 months) and more toxic treatment course. In prior open label study the investigators have shown that adding V-5 Immunitor (V5), can reduce treatment duration to one month and enhance by 4-5 fold the efficacy of TB drugs. Furthermore, V5 has been shown to reverse or reduce liver damage caused by chemotherapy. The cost of V5 will be very modest. The investigators propose to conduct placebo-controlled clinical trial in patients with treatment refractory TB so that the clinical benefit of V5 is confirmed.