Drug information
| drug-audio-en-454.mp3 |
What is pyrazinamide?
Pyrazinamide is an antibacterial prescription medicine approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of active tuberculosis (TB). (Active TB is also called TB disease.)
TB can be an opportunistic infection (OI) of HIV. An OI is an infection that occurs more frequently or is more severe in people with weakened immune systems—such as people with HIV—than in people with healthy immune systems. To learn more about OIs, read the HIVinfo What is an Opportunistic Infection? fact sheet.
To learn how HIV and TB are connected, read the HIVinfo HIV and Tuberculosis (TB) fact sheet. The fact sheet includes information on TB treatment in people with HIV/TB coinfection.
How is pyrazinamide used in people with HIV?
The Guidelines for the Prevention and Treatment of Opportunistic Infections in Adults and Adolescents with HIV and the Guidelines for the Prevention and Treatment of Opportunistic Infections in Children with and Exposed to HIV include recommendations on the use of pyrazinamide to treat active TB disease in people with HIV.
The recommended uses may not always be consistent with FDA-approved uses of pyrazinamide. See the Adult and Pediatric Opportunistic Infection Guidelines for complete information on recommended uses of pyrazinamide in adults and children with HIV. Pyrazinamide may have other recommended uses not listed above.What should I tell my health care provider before taking pyrazinamide?
Before taking pyrazinamide, tell your health care provider:
- If you are allergic to pyrazinamide or any other medicines.
- About any medical conditions you have or have had, including diabetes, liver or kidney problems, or gout.
- If you have a history of drug or alcohol abuse.
- About anything that could affect your ability to take medicines, such as difficulty swallowing or remembering to take tablets.
- If you are pregnant or plan to become pregnant. Talk to your health care provider about the risks and benefits of taking pyrazinamide during pregnancy. The Guidelines for the Prevention and Treatment of Opportunistic Infections in Adults and Adolescents with HIV may include other recommendations on the use of pyrazinamide during pregnancy. Please refer to these guidelines for additional information.
- If you are breast/chestfeeding or plan to breast/chestfeed. For people with HIV in the United States, the Guideline recommends speaking with your health care provider to discuss options for feeding your baby. People with suppressed viral load have a less than 1% chance of transmitting HIV to their baby via their own milk.
- About other prescription and nonprescription medicines, vitamins, nutritional supplements, and herbal products you are taking or plan to take. Pyrazinamide may affect the way other medicines or products work, and other medicines or products may affect how pyrazinamide works. Ask your health care provider if there are interactions between pyrazinamide and the other medicines you take.
Ask your health care provider about possible side effects from pyrazinamide. Your health care provider will tell you what to do if you have side effects.
How should I take pyrazinamide?
Take pyrazinamide according to your health care provider’s instructions. Your health care provider will tell you how much pyrazinamide to take and when to take it. Before you start pyrazinamide and each time you get a refill, read any printed information that comes with your medicine.
How should pyrazinamide be stored?
- Store pyrazinamide tablets in a well-closed container at room temperature, 59°F to 86°F (15°C to 30°C).
- Keep pyrazinamide in the container that it came in and keep the container tightly closed.
- Do not use pyrazinamide if the original seal over the container opening is broken or missing.
- Throw away pyrazinamide that is no longer needed or expired (out of date). Follow FDA guidelines on how to safely dispose of unused medicine.
- Keep pyrazinamide and all medicines out of reach of children.
Where can I find more information about pyrazinamide?
- Recommendations on the HIV-related use of pyrazinamide, from the Guidelines for the Prevention and Treatment of Opportunistic Infections in Adults and Adolescents with HIV and the Guidelines for the Prevention and Treatment of Opportunistic Infections in Children with and Exposed to HIV.
- This Patient Version drug summary is based on the following FDA label(s): Tablet.
- The American Hospital Formulary Service (AHFS) Patient Medication Information for pyrazinamide available from MedlinePlus.
- Pyrazinamide-related research studies, from ClinicalTrials.gov. (The ClinicalTrials.gov search can be modified so that you can get results that better match your interests. To learn more about the ClinicalTrials.gov search features, please see How to Search.)
Last Reviewed: May 30, 2023