Tuberculosis (TB) is a major health crisis worldwide with the emergence of new drug resistant cases. There are about 580,000 rifampicin resistant (RR) or multidrug resistant (MDR) new TB cases occurring every year globally1 . Multidrug resistant (MDR) TB is defined as cases resistant to both rifampicin and isoniazid. Effective management of MDR TB is a great challenge for both the clinicians and the patients. MDR TB cannot be treated with the standard 6 months regimen of first line medication which is effective in most TB patients. Patients with rifampicin-resistant or MDR TB are treated with a different combination of second line drugs, usually for 20 months or more. Due to this long duration of treatment and side effects of the drugs, many patients fail to complete the treatment. Implementation and continuation of this long duration of treatment also adds a huge burden to the health system of the country. Attempts to reduce the length of conventional MDR TB regimens and to use a combination of drugs which is more tolerable had been going on for several years. A standardized treatment regimen lasting less than 12 months was studied in a number of countries. It showed promising results in MDR TB patients.

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