Adult

Strengthening primary care for diabetes and hypertension in Eswatini: study protocol for a nationwide cluster-randomized controlled trial

BACKGROUND: Diabetes and hypertension are increasingly important population health challenges in Eswatini. Prior to this project, healthcare for these conditions was primarily provided through physician-led teams at tertiary care facilities and …

Incidence and factors associated with active tuberculosis among people living with HIV after long-term antiretroviral therapy in Thailand: a competing risk model

BACKGROUND: Antiretroviral therapy (ART) is known to reduce tuberculosis (TB) incidence among people living with HIV (PLWH). However, studies describing the impact of long-term ART and CD4 count recovery on TB incidence remain scarce due to limited …

Diapers as Promising Alternative Collection Method for Urine Specimens in Nursing Home Residents: A Noninferiority Study.

OBJECTIVE: There is unmet need for an easy, noninvasive urine collection method to diagnose urinary tract infections (UTIs) in nursing home residents suffering from urinary incontinence or cognitive impairments. UTIs are highly prevalent in nursing …

Beyond multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in Europe: a TBNET study

The emergence of drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) is a challenge to TB control in Europe. We evaluated second-line drug susceptibility testing in Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates from patients with multidrug-resistant, pre-extensively …

Health care-seeking behaviour among people with cough in Tanzania: findings from a tuberculosis prevalence survey

SETTING: The study was conducted within a nation-wide population-based tuberculosis (TB) prevalence survey in the adult population in Tanzania. OBJECTIVE: To assess the health care-seeking behaviour of coughers presumed to have TB. DESIGN: A survey …

Risk assessment of tuberculosis in immunocompromised patients. A TBNET study

RATIONALE: In the absence of active tuberculosis, a positive tuberculin skin test (TST) or interferon-γ release assay (IGRA) result defines latent infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis, although test results may vary depending on …

Care seeking in tuberculosis: results from a countrywide cluster randomised survey in Bangladesh

OBJECTIVES: To explore systematically the care seeking trajectories of tuberculosis (TB) cases up to four subsequent places of care and to assess the type of services provided at each place. METHODS: TB cases detected actively during the 2007-2009 …

Healthcare workers' challenges in the implementation of tuberculosis infection prevention and control measures in Mozambique

OBJECTIVE: Healthcare Workers (HCWs) have a higher frequency of TB exposure than the general population and have therefore an occupational TB risk that infection prevention and control (IPC) measures aim to reduce. HCWs are crucial in the …

TB diagnostic process management of patients in a referral hospital in Mozambique in comparison with the 2007 WHO recommendations for the diagnosis of smear-negative pulmonary TB and extrapulmonary TB

BACKGROUND: In sub-Saharan African countries, the high proportion of smear-negative pulmonary TB (SNTB) and extrapulmonary TB (EPTB) contributes to a delay in TB diagnosis and treatment. We evaluated the TB diagnostic process of adult patients with …

Epidemiology of tuberculosis in an urban slum of Dhaka City, Bangladesh

BACKGROUND: The objectives of this study were to assess the tuberculosis (TB) burden and to provide an insight into the type of circulating M. tuberculosis species in urban slums of Bangladesh. We also aimed to test the feasibility of a larger …