Humans

Design of pragmatic trials of tuberculosis interventions

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 …

Are routine tuberculosis programme data suitable to report on antiretroviral therapy use of HIV-infected tuberculosis patients?

BACKGROUND: Antiretroviral therapy (ART) is lifesaving for HIV-infected tuberculosis (TB) patients. ART-use by these patients lag behind compared to HIV-testing and co-trimoxazole preventive therapy. TB programmes provide the data on ART-use by …

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 …

Predictive value of the tuberculin skin test among newly arriving immigrants

RATIONALE: Screening and treating newly arriving immigrants for latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) in low-incidence countries could be promising to reduce the tuberculosis incidence among this population. The effectiveness of screening with the …

Role of the QuantiFERON(R)-TB Gold In-Tube assay in screening new immigrants for tuberculosis infection

This study aimed to estimate the risk of progression to active tuberculosis (TB) within 2 yrs after entry in newly arriving immigrants who were screened with the QuantiFERON®-TB Gold In-Tube assay (QFT-GIT; Cellestis, Carnegie, Australia). In a …

Earlier initiation of antiretroviral therapy, increased tuberculosis case finding and reduced mortality in a setting of improved HIV care: a retrospective cohort study

OBJECTIVES High early mortality after antiretroviral therapy (ART) initiation in resource-limited settings is associated with low baseline CD4 cell counts and a high burden of opportunistic infections. Our large urban HIV clinic in Uganda has made …

Prevalence of smear-positive tuberculosis in persons aged ≥ 15 years in Bangladesh: results from a national survey, 2007-2009

The aim of this study was to determine the nationwide prevalence of smear-positive tuberculosis (TB) in Bangladesh. A multi-stage cluster survey of a random sample of persons aged ≥ 15 years was included in 40 clusters (20 urban, 20 rural). Two …

Multidrug resistance among new tuberculosis cases: detecting local variation through lot quality-assurance sampling

BACKGROUND: Current methodology for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR TB) surveys endorsed by the World Health Organization provides estimates of MDR TB prevalence among new cases at the national level. On the aggregate, local variation in the …