Research done in Brazil by scientists from Johns Hopkins University presented the report at an American Society for Microbiology conference in Chicago.
The new antibiotic therapy uses moxifloxacin in the place of ethambutol, an older, more traditional anti-TB drug.
Dr. Melvin Spigelman, research and development director for the nonprofit Global Alliance for TB Drug Development in New York told the AP, "It sounds fantastic. The science is there."
However, the researchers have warned that more research is needed in this field and the doctors now plan launch a 2,400-patient study later this year.
Current treatment consists of three or four antibiotics taken daily for six months or more. However a research indicates that half of patients do not take all their pills, allowing resistant bacteria to grow and spread.
Moxifloxacin currently sells under brand name Avelox in the United States for short-term use against pneumonia and other respiratory illnesses. The pill costs $10 a day, but researchers said its manufacturer Bayer AG now plans to reduce the prices in developing countries if it receives an federal approval.
About 1.6 million people died from TB in 2005, according to the World Health Organization. Not everyone infected develops the full-blown disease, so asymptomatic, latent TB infection is most common.
However, one in ten latent infections will progress to active TB disease, which, if left untreated, kills more than half of its victims.
