Amina Jindani

Amina Jindani FRCP, is a leading clinical trialist, who has spent forty years conducting randomised controlled trials seeking to improve the treatment of drug-susceptible tuberculosis.

She was coordinator of clinical trials at the MRC Tuberculosis and Chest Diseases Unit, London, and the East African Tuberculosis Investigation Centre (1967–77).[1] Over this period, the MRC undertook a series of clinical trials that developed modern short course treatment regimens for drug susceptible tuberculosis.[1][2]

She then held positions at the Department of Preventive Medicine and Biostatistics, University of Toronto (1977–80), and the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, Paris (1997–2004).[1]

She is currently Emeritus Professor of Tuberculosis Therapeutics at City St George's, University of London.[3]

Early life

Jindani was born in Zanzibar in 1936, moved to the UK aged 15, and studied medicine at the University of London.[4]

Doctoral research

Her PhD research developed the Early Bactericidal Assay, an experimental design to explore the ability of tuberculosis drugs to clear bacilli from sputum.[5] This method is now widely used to evaluate new antibiotics for their activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis in man.[6]

Study A

Jindani was chief investigator of Study A, a randomised controlled trial testing two 8-month regimens (one recommended in international guidelines at the time) against the current gold standard 6-month regimen for the treatment of newly diagnosed drug-susceptible pulmonary tuberculosis. The shorter regimen used rifampicin (rather than ethambutol) alongside the isoniazid during the 'continuation phase'.

Between 1998 and 2004, the trial enrolled 1,355 patients from eight centres in both Africa and Asia. It was the first TB trial to use a non-inferiority design. The trial clearly demonstrated that an 8 month regimen, then recommended in World Health Organisation guidelines, was inferior to the current six month regimen.[7][8]

Study A was the key evidence supporting 2010 changes to the World Health Organisation's tuberculosis treatment guidelines, changes estimated to have prevented 100,000s of relapses and treatment failures per year.[9][10]

Other work

Jindani's other major trials include RIFAQUIN, RIFATOX and RIFASHORT.[11][12][13] These trials all focused on use of high dose rifamycin in treatment regimens for drug susceptible tuberculosis. Prof Jindani's collaborators included Donald Enarson, Andrew Nunn and Denis Mitchison.

Personal life

Jindani married lawyer Mohamed Keshavjee in 1977.

Recognition

Jindani was elected Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (London) in 2003.[14] She was awarded the Ibn Sina Award for Medicine in 2018.[15] In 2019, she was awarded the Princess Chichibu Memorial Global TB Prize, which is awarded annually by the Japan Anti-Tuberculosis Association to 'A person who has made internationally recognized achievements in scientific research on tuberculosis or tuberculosis control'.[16] More recently, Jindani was named City St George's Extraordinary Woman 2025.[4]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Short-course chemotherapy for Tuberculosis" (PDF).
  2. ↑ Wallace Fox. "Studies on the treatment of tuberculosis undertaken by the British Medical Research Council tuberculosis units, 1946-1986, with relevant subsequent publications".
  3. ↑ "Professor Amina Jindani, City St George's profile page".
  4. 1 2 "Professor Amina Jindani: the pioneering woman dedicated to eradicating tuberculosis". 19 March 2025.
  5. ↑ Jindani, A.; Aber, V. R.; Edwards, E. A.; Mitchison, D. A. (1980). "The early bactericidal activity of drugs in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis". The American Review of Respiratory Disease. 121 (6): 939–949. doi:10.1164/arrd.1980.121.6.939. ISSN 0003-0805. PMID 6774638. Retrieved 6 April 2026.
  6. ↑ Stephen Gillespie (26 December 2001). "A Reiterative Method for Calculating the Early Bactericidal Activity of Antituberculosis Drugs".
  7. ↑ Amina Jindani (2004). "Two 8-month regimens of chemotherapy for treatment of newly diagnosed pulmonary tuberculosis: international multicentre randomised trial". Lancet. 364 (9441): 1244–1251. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(04)17141-9. PMID 15464185.
  8. ↑ Andrew Nunn (2011). "Results at 30 months of a randomised trial of two 8-month regimens for the treatment of tuberculosis".
  9. ↑ World Health Organisation (2010). "Treatment of tuberculosis: guidelines, 4th edition".
  10. ↑ University College London (2014). "Study A leads to changes in Tuberculosis treatment guidelines".
  11. ↑ Amina Jindani (2014). "High-Dose Rifapentine with Moxifloxacin for Pulmonary Tuberculosis". New England Journal of Medicine. 371 (17): 1599–1608. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa1314210. PMC 4233406. PMID 25337749.
  12. ↑ Amina Jindani (2016). "A randomised Phase II trial to evaluate the toxicity of high-dose rifampicin to treat pulmonary tuberculosis". The International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease : The Official Journal of the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease. 20 (6): 832–838. doi:10.5588/ijtld.15.0577. PMID 27155189.
  13. ↑ Amina Jindani (2023). "Four-Month High-Dose Rifampicin Regimens for Pulmonary Tuberculosis". NEJM Evidence. 2 (9). doi:10.1056/EVIDoa2300054. PMID 38320155.
  14. ↑ "Professor Amina Jindani - biography". London: City St George's, University of London. 6 April 2026. Archived from the original on 6 April 2026. Retrieved 6 April 2026.
  15. ↑ Raficq Abdulla (27 April 2018). "Top UK Award for Lifelong Champion of Tuberculosis Eradication".
  16. ↑ International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease. "Princess Chichibu Memorial TB Global Award".
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