Tuberculosis in contacts need not indicate disease transmission

Tuberculosis in contacts need not indicate disease transmission.

BACKGROUND Traditional contact investigation is an important tool for controlling tuberculosis. It may also help to indicate drug susceptibility patterns when Mycobacterium tuberculosis cultures are not available. Such investigations often underestimate the degree of transmission found by genotyping, but overestimation may also occur. This report is the result of a routine successive DNA restri...

Tuberculosis Transmission Attributable to Close Contacts and HIV Status, Malawi

We conducted the first molecular study of tuberculosis (TB) to estimate the role of household contact and transmission from HIV-positive putative source contacts (PSCs) in a high HIV-prevalence area. TB patients in a long-term population-based study in Malawi were asked about past contact with TB. DNA fingerprinting was used to define clusters of cases with identical strains. Among 143 epidemio...

Tuberculosis: which patients do not identify their contacts?

SETTING It is not known what the magnitude of non-identified TB contacts is in our country, or the reasons why contacts at risk are not identified. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to analyze the determinants associated with non-identification of contacts. DESIGN This cross-sectional study included all cases of pulmonary tuberculosis diagnosed and treated in the Chest Disease Centre ...

What Patient Factors Predict Physicians’ Decision Not to Treat Latent Tuberculosis Infection in Tuberculosis Contacts?

OBJECTIVE The study aimed to determine factors that are associated with physicians' decision to offer treatment for latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) in contacts of patients with tuberculosis. METHODS We performed a nested case-control study in a cohort of contacts of patients with pulmonary tuberculosis who had a tuberculin skin test (TST) ≥ 10 mm. Cases were those who were offered treatm...

Tuberculosis contacts and prophylaxis.