BACKGROUND The World Health Organization estimated in 2010 that 8.8 million new tuberculosis (TB) cases. About one-third of the world's population is infected and 10% will develop active TB disease. While cultures remain the international gold standard for diagnosing TB disease, in many other low-income countries, sputum smears remain the only and most accessible tool with which to diagnose act...

Background Detecting patients whose sputum is smear-positive (smear+) on microscopic examination is an essential public health strategy to control tuberculosis (TB). It is estimated that only 53% of smear+ cases were notified under DOTS in 2004, indicating that a significant proportion of smear+ cases are going undetected within DOTS areas worldwide. Recent studies have suggested that women in ...

Patients with pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) with acid-fast bacilli (AFB)-positive sputum smear at 5 months or later during treatment are considered to be cases of treatment failure according to World Health Organization guidelines. This study evaluated the proportion, clinical characteristics, and significance of positive sputum smears after ≥5 months of standard treatment in patients with drug-s...

Culture based phenotypic drug susceptibility testing (DST) for Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB) is time consuming therefore rapid genotypic methods are increasingly being utilized. We previously developed and evaluated on TB isolates a rapid genotypic TaqMan array card (TAC) that detects mutations in several resistance-associated genes using dozens of primer pairs, probes, and high resolution me...

Study Design: Traditionally, Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTB-complex) is identified by conventional methods. However, molecular methods are now being used more often. The previous algorithm of acid fast bacilli (AFB) smear positive patients who were new to the Bureau of Clinical Laboratories (BCL) was run on the GeneXpert automatically. The Xpert® MTB/RIF assay, performed on the GeneXpe...

OBJECTIVE Patients admitted to the pulmonary isolation service to rule out tuberculosis (TB) were prospectively studied to identify predictors of smear-positive TB. METHODS History of symptoms--cough, sputum production, fever, weight loss, night sweats, hemoptysis, anorexia, and dyspnea; medical history--TB, tuberculin skin test (TST) status, TB contact; and social factors--crowding index, hi...

748 Emerging Infectious Diseases • Vol. 8, No. 7, July 2002 Additionally, the high conversion rate (two of five) in those who reported consistent mask use when caring for active TB cases may suggest overreporting of mask use, poor adjustment of the mask, contact with unsuspected active cases (9), or contact with a contaminated environment. This high TST conversion rate and incidence of TB demon...