BACKGROUND The real burden of smear-positive (PTB+) and bacteriologically confirmed tuberculosis (BCTB) in Ethiopia is not known. Thus, the aim of this community-based study was to measure the prevalence and incidence of tuberculosis in the Hetosa District of Oromia Region, Ethiopia. METHODS First, a population-based cross-sectional survey was conducted on a total of 33,073 individuals aged ≥...

Sputum smear-negative HIV-associated active tuberculosis (TB) is challenging to diagnose. CD14 is a pattern recognition receptor that is known to mediate monocyte activation. Prior studies have shown increased levels of soluble CD14 (sCD14) as a potential biomarker for TB, but little is known about its value in detecting smear-negative HIV-associated TB. We optimized a sandwich ELISA for the de...

BACKGROUND India has 23% of the global burden of active tuberculosis (TB) patients and 27% of the world's "missing" patients, which includes those who may not have received effective TB care and could potentially spread TB to others. The "cascade of care" is a useful model for visualizing deficiencies in case detection and retention in care, in order to prioritize interventions. METHODS AND F...

BACKGROUND Street-connected youth and young adults (SCY) suffer a myriad of health problems. In Kenya, SCY are at high risk for tuberculosis (TB) due to their congregate living situations. TB screening is not routinely implemented in SCY and there has been no published literature on the burden of TB in SCY in western Kenya. PROGRAM DESCRIPTION In 2011, the AMPATH TB Program, an experienced TB...

Evaluation of disease outcome is central to the assessment of tuberculosis (TB) control programmes. In the study reported in this article we examined the factors influencing the measurement of outcome, survival rates during and after treatment, smear conversion rates, and relapse rates for patients diagnosed with TB in a rural area of Malawi between 1986 and mid-1994. Patients with less certain...

The lack of healthcare access contributes to large numbers of tuberculosis (TB) cases being missed and has led to renewed interest in outreach approaches to increase detection. It is however unclear whether outreach activities increase case detection or merely identify patients before they attend health facilities. We compared adults with cough of >2 weeks' duration recruited in health faciliti...

INTRODUCTION The culture-negative conversion rate of sputum after 2 months of treatment in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) is used as a reliable surrogate marker for relapse after completion of treatment. We hypothesized that culture conversion of sputum at 2 months of anti-TB treatment and the time to culture conversion are different among pulmonary TB patients who are diagnosed usin...

BACKGROUND One of the fundamental issues of infectious disease treatment is drug resistance. The aim of the present study was to investigate the first-line anti-tuberculosis drug resistance rates and determine the risk factors related to multidrug resistant mycobacterium tuberculosis. METHODS From March 2011 to September 2012, mycobacterial strains were collected from one hundred fifteen diag...

BACKGROUND/AIMS Osteopontin (OPN) expression is increased during the course of various chronic inflammatory diseases, including tuberculosis (TB). However, its prognostic value in TB management remains unclear. This study aimed to determine whether OPN could associate with other cytokines serving as a reliable biomarker for evaluating the effectiveness of early anti-TB treatments. METHODS Sme...

Globally, tuberculosis-HIV co-infections are on the increase. In 2007, 15% (1.37 million) of the tuberculosis cases were HIV-positive tuberculosis (TB). This cross-sectional study was conducted in February 2009 to assess the effect of the level of CD4 lymphocyte counts on the development of smear positive pulmonary TB (PTB) among HIV patients before and after initiation of highly active antiret...