What Is Ethionamide?

Ethionamide is a drug that works on a certain group of slow-growing bacteria. These bacteria cause tuberculosis and leprosy, and ethionamide is an antibiotic that patients need to take over a period of months to cure thes diseases. Often, the drug is only one of a collection of medications that patients have to take at the same time. Tablets, suppositories and injections are the available forms of the drug, but the oral form is most practical for the longterm treatment.

The bacteria that cause tuberculosis, and the less common disease leprosy, are of the genus Mycobacterium. Tuberculosis is an airborne disease that a person catches from inhaling Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria from an infected person's breath. Generally, the disease affects the lungs first, but it can also spread to other areas of the body. Although not every person infected with the disease suffers serious symptoms, the disease is a serious cause of death in developing countries.

Leprosy, on the other hand, is an infectious disease that is much less prevalent in the 21st century than in previous years, and does not tend to affect developed countries. Mycobacterium leprae is the bacterial species that can cause the diseased extremities and skin swellings associated with the condition. Both the leprosy and tuberculosis bacterial species are microbes that grow very slowly in the body compared to most other infectious microbes. This slow growth means that special drugs, that work over the longterm, are needed to kill off the bacteria and prevent more growth.

One of these drugs is ethionamide, which doctors can use for both tuberculosis and leprosy. Often, however, ethionamide is used in conjunction with one or more other drugs as part of a longterm treatment regimen. Bacteria can gain resistance to drugs over time, and combining two or more medications can help ensure the infection is killed off. The longterm nature of both tuberculosis and leprosy treatment can also increase the risk of drug resistance developing, as patients may find it hard to remember to take their medicine, or find the medication regime too awkward to finish.

A feature of ethionamide treatment is that a significant proportion of patients experience unpleasant enough side effects from the drug to the extent that they have to change to another antibiotic instead. Examples of side effects include gastrointestinal problems like feeling sick, experiencing a taste of metal in the mouth, and producing too much saliva. Patients taking the drug can also lose a lot of weight, experience issues like hallucinations, or suffer dizziness.