Middle Aged

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 …

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 …

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 …

Adherence to tuberculosis therapy among patients receiving home-based directly observed treatment: evidence from the United Republic of Tanzania

BACKGROUND: Non-adherence to tuberculosis (TB) treatment is the leading contributor to the selection of drug-resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and subsequent treatment failure. Tanzania introduced a TB Patient Centred Treatment (PCT) …

Coverage and yield of tuberculosis contact investigations in the Netherlands

SETTING: An increasing proportion of tuberculosis (TB) patients in low-incidence countries are immigrants. It is unclear whether contact investigations among immigrant patients are adequate. OBJECTIVE: To determine whether ethnicity of pulmonary TB …