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Aspirin helps increase survival from TB meningitis by reducing brain inflammation and preventing the disease from blocking blood vessels in the brain that cause parts of the brain to die, commonly called ‘stroke’.

TB bacteria
Acid-fast bacilli of Myobacterium tuberculosis (the red cords; the blue blobs are white cells) in the cerebrospinal Fluid of a patient with tuberculous meningitis

These findings were recently published in eLife, from a phase II clinical trial led by Professor Guy Thwaites

With funding from the Wellcome Trust, OUCRU researchers  investigated whether the addition of aspirin at low (81mg/day) or high (1000mg/day) dose, or placebo, to the first 60 days of current standard TB meningitis treatment (anti-TB drugs and steroids) was safe and reduced new strokes or death from this severe disease.

Professor Thwaites was recently interviewed about this work for the eLife podcast, and you can listen to the interview on eLife podcast (at 14:45 on the clock)

eLife have also published an insight article, which discusses this study and its results