LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Isoniazid
built 642 days ago
Isoniazid preventive therapy for latent tuberculosis infection was introduced to clinical practice 38 years ago, in 1965, after a series of superb clinical trials (1) showed its efficacy in preventing tuberculosis in a wide variety of settings. Instead of hastening the decline in the incidence of tuberculosis in the United States as it was expected to do... isoniazid found itself in a 4-decade struggle for survival, from which it is now emerging. The pitfall was the almost immediate report of cases of fatal hepatotoxicity (2), a side effect not anticipated from results of the clinical trials. This ominous complication doomed isoniazid preventive therapy as it was originally intended, a curative treatment for every person in the United States with latent tuberculosis infection. What followed was a lengthy series of debates in the medical literature: Should isoniazid ever be used as preventive therapy? Who should receive it?
Source:
Generic Isoniazid is an antituberculosis agent used to treat Tuberculosis. For treatment of tuberculosis, other medicines may be used together with Generic Isoniazid. For prevention of tuberculosis, isoniazid may be given alone.
Source:
Isoniazid has an importance far beyond its role in analytical studies. Preventive therapy for latent TB infection is one of the major strategies in the national plan to eliminate TB from the United States.27 Among the estimated 25 million foreign-born persons residing in the United States,28 approximately 1 in 3 who immigrated from areas of the world where TB is still highly endemic have latent TB infection as a consequence of exposure to TB prior to arrival in the United States. For such persons, who now constitute the fastest-rising pool of TB cases in the United States,28-29 preventive therapy is the only possible means to lower their 5% to 10% lifetime risk of active TB. Likewise, isoniazid preventive therapy ... has been shown to reduce significantly the highly elevated risk of TB in persons coinfected with HIV and latent TB,30-31 now numbered at more than 4 million persons worldwide.
Source:
Isoniazid has been reported to cause mild and transient elevations in serum AST (SGOT), ALT (SGPT), and bilirubin concentrations in 10% to 20% of patients, usually during the first 4 to 6 months of therapy. Laboratory values usually return to pretreatment levels with continued use of the drug; ... progressive liver damage, bilirubinemia, jaundice, and severe and sometimes fatal hepatitis have occurred rarely. Hepatitis and hepatitis prodromal symptoms (e.g., persistent fatigue, weakness, or fever exceeding 3 days; malaise; nausea; vomiting; or unexplained anorexia) have been observed with the use of isoniazid. The incidence of isoniazid-associated hepatitis is lowest in those younger than 20 years of age and highest in daily users of alcohol and in patients 35 years of age or older. Liver function tests should be performed periodically, and patients should be carefully observed for any of the prodromal symptoms of hepatitis.[32]
Source:
The side effect that may be found when using Isoniazid will always vary upon the user. All drugs have side effects that will range from small complications such as weight gain or weight loss to sleep deprivation. As the side effects with Isoniazid will range from individual to individual we recommend that if you suspect any danger or possible overdose that you contact and seek medical attention from your local emergency clinic or in less severe cases phone your physician. For the best information on current drug side effects it is always best to go online to a news forum for recent info and reviews of the possible side effects, warnings and dangers of Isoniazid. To decrease the risks involved with any drug it is always best to follow a healthy lifestyle, take the correct dosage at the proper time and always follow the instructions on communicated to you by the pharmacist or doctor about how to take Isoniazid. If you suspect any possible side effects from using this medicine and/or have any problems as a result of taking Isoniazid talk to your physician and they might decrease your dosage or offer you another alternative with less possible side effects.
Source:
DRUG CLASS AND MECHANISM: Isoniazid, or INH, is an anti-bacterial drug that has been used to prevent and to treat tuberculosis since 1952. Tuberculosis is an infectious diseased caused by a bacterium. Once the infection is acquired, it usually remains dormant in the lungs. Later, the infection may become active in the lungs and sometimes spreads throughout the body. Patients with a tuberculosis skin test that has recently become abnormal (demonstrating recent infection with tuberculosis) but a normal chest x-ray (demonstrating inactive infection) are given INH alone for 6-9 months. Patients with active infection on chest x-ray are given INH combined with other antituberculous drugs.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Isoniazid