Are free anti-tuberculosis drugs enough?
The economic burden associated with seeking diagnosis and treatment remains a barrier for TB patients in China. Reducing the cost of treatment and giving patients subsidies for transportation, lodging and food is likely to improve treatment compliance. Improving doctors' salary system to cut off the revenue-oriented incentive, and expanding current insurance's coverage can be helpful to reduce patients' actual burden or anticipated burden. Future research on this issue is needed.
These results expand the genotype-phenotype correlation of ABCA4, showing that homozygosity for the novel c.4254-15del23 splicing mutation is associated with a severe progressive form of disease.