Acquired rifamycin resistance in persons with advanced HIV disease being treated for active tuberculosis with intermittent rifamycin-based regimens.

Rifamycin drugs (i.e., rifampin, rifabutin, and rifapentine) are essential for short-course chemotherapy in persons with active tuberculosis (TB). However, adverse drug-drug interactions complicate the concurrent use of rifamycins and protease inhibitor drugs in persons with active TB who also are infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-TB). CDC has recommended use of rifabutin in place of rifampin in multidrug regimens for the treatment of active TB in HIV-TB because rifabutin can be administered with antiretroviral treatment regimens that include protease inhibitors (1,2). These recommendations included twice-weekly intermittent therapy. Because intermittent rifabutin-based regimens had not been evaluated in clinical trials of HIV-TB, CDC's TB Trials Consortium (TBTC) initiated TBTC Study 23, a single-arm trial of twice-weekly rifabutin-based therapy for treatment of HIV-TB.