Tuberculosis
- Screening for Severe Illness at Diagnosis Has the Potential to Prevent Early TB Deaths: Programmatic Experience From Karnataka, India
Despite TB being a potentially fatal disease, severity is not systematically assessed at the start of drug-susceptible TB treatment. We document our experience screening people for severe illness at diagnosis/notification in program settings and the potential impact on reducing early TB deaths.
- Leveraging Experience From Active TB Drug-Safety Monitoring and Management for Monitoring Active Antiretroviral Toxicity
Systems established for active drug safety monitoring and management of drug-resistant TB should be leveraged to ensure comprehensive surveillance for active toxicity monitoring during scale-up of newer antiretroviral regimens.
- Uganda Public Health Fellowship Program's Contributions to the National HIV and TB Programs, 2015–2020
The Uganda Public Health Fellowship Program has built the capacity of its fellows to address multiple gaps in the Uganda health system as well as to contribute to improving Uganda's ability to prevent, prepare for, and respond to public health emergencies such as HIV and TB.
- Using a Pharmacy-Based Surveillance System to Improve Standards for TB Care in Kerala, India
A pharmacy-based surveillance system in Kerala, India, has helped to improve TB patient notifications from the private sector, build better public-private partnerships, and improve the quality of TB diagnosis. Pharmacy-based surveillance has the potential to strengthen TB surveillance and facilitate standards of TB care.
- Lessons Learned During the COVID-19 Pandemic to Strengthen TB Infection Control: A Rapid Review
In light of competing health priorities of COVID-19 and TB, we propose recommendations to strengthen health system preparedness for optimal TB control across low- and middle-income countries during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
- A Quality Improvement Intervention to Inform Scale-Up of Integrated HIV-TB Services: Lessons Learned From KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Despite being standard of care, gaps in HIV-TB service delivery are present. Quality Improvement methods are effective in uncovering health systems weaknesses that impede efficient delivery of integrated HIV-TB services.
- Implementation of GeneXpert for TB Testing in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Systematic Review
This review highlights a commonality of implementation barriers across geographically dispersed GeneXpert interventions for TB testing. This indicates the importance of using implementation frameworks to report findings that can improve public health outcomes across low- and middle-income countries.
- STEPS: A Solution for Ensuring Standards of TB Care for Patients Reaching Private Hospitals in India
A low-cost model for engaging the private sector to address gaps in TB care and ensuring that patients in the private sector receive the standards of care in India was feasible. The pilot project showed improvements in standards of care, which benefits the patient, government, private hospitals, and society.
- Diagnostic Utility and Impact on Clinical Decision Making of Focused Assessment With Sonography for HIV-Associated Tuberculosis in Malawi: A Prospective Cohort Study
Among patients with HIV and with probable/confirmed TB, using the focused assessment with sonography for HIV-associated TB (FASH) protocol led to a 5-fold increase in the clinician's decision to initiate TB treatment on that day. FASH is a supplementary tool that can help clinicians diagnose patients with HIV-associated TB at the point-of-care and reduce delays in their treatment, particularly when access to other diagnostics is limited or unavailable.
- Realizing the “40 by 2022” Commitment From the United Nations High-Level Meeting on the Fight to End Tuberculosis: What Will It Take to Meet Rapid Diagnostic Testing Needs?
Existing rapid diagnostics offer faster and more sensitive diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB) and simultaneous detection of multidrug-resistant TB. A 5-fold increase in investment in these tools is needed to meet the needs of the TB community and the United Nations’ ambitious 40 million by 2022 diagnosis and treatment target.