Mycobacterium tuberculosis

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 …

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 …

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 …

Evaluation of the Genotype® MTBDRplus assay as a tool for drug resistance surveys

SETTING A national tuberculosis (TB) drug resistance survey in Tanzania. OBJECTIVE To compare the performance of the Genotype® MTBDRplus line-probe assay (LPA) on smear-positive sputum specimens with conventional culture and isoniazid (INH) plus …

The tuberculin skin test: a comparison of ruler and calliper readings

BACKGROUND: The Mantoux tuberculin skin test (TST) is widely used to diagnose latent infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis. TST skin induration may be measured either by a transparent ruler or by a pair of callipers. We hypothesised that the type …

National anti-tuberculosis drug resistance study in Tanzania

OBJECTIVE: To assess the prevalence of anti-tuberculosis drug resistance in a national representative sample of tuberculosis (TB) patients in Tanzania according to recommended methodology. DESIGN: Cluster survey, with 40 clusters sampled proportional …

Implementation of a national anti-tuberculosis drug resistance survey in Tanzania

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: A drug resistance survey is an essential public health management tool for evaluating and improving the performance of National Tuberculosis control programmes. The current manuscript describes the implementation of the first …