Introduction: Development of effective immunodiagnostic methods for detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection is crucial. Serodiagnostic methods, based on antibody response to specific antigens could provide promising approaches for rapid, economical and easy to perform diagnostic tests which are crucial for tuberculosis (TB) control. In this study, the level of IgG antibody responses...

BACKGROUND Collaborative TB/HIV management is essential to ensure that HIV positive TB patients are identified and treated appropriately, and to prevent tuberculosis (TB) in HIV positive patients. The purpose of this study was to assess HIV case finding among TB patients and Co-trimoxazole Preventive Therapy (CPT) for HIV/TB patients in Addis Ababa. METHODS A descriptive cross-sectional, faci...

OBJECTIVE To determine the time from diagnosis to start of multidrug resistant tuberculosis (MDR TB) treatment in Lima, Peru. METHODS We studied new smear-positive TB adults that were started on MDR TB treatment or that were switched to it between June 2008 and December 2011. RESULTS Time from the first positive smear to MDR-TB treatment was >30 days in 35% (13/37) of patients. Among the 27...

BACKGROUND Meticulous identification and investigation of patients presenting with tuberculosis (TB) suggestive symptoms rarely happen in crowded outpatient departments (OPDs). Making health providers in OPDs diligently follow screening procedures may help increase TB case detection. From July 2010 to December 2013, two symptom based TB screening approaches of varying cough duration were used t...

BACKGROUND The prevalence of asymptomatic tuberculosis (TB) in recently diagnosed HIV-1-infected persons attending pre-antiretroviral therapy (ART) clinics is not well described. In addition, it is unclear if the detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in these patients clearly represents an early asymptomatic phase leading to progressive disease or transient excretion of bacilli. OBJECTIVE T...

BACKGROUND Delay in diagnosis is one of the most important factors for the control of tuberculosis (TB) in endemic countries like India. As laboratory diagnosis is the mainstay for identification of active disease, we aim to explore and understand the opinions of medical doctors about the laboratory diagnosis of TB in Ujjain, India. METHODS Sixteen qualified specialist medical doctors from Uj...

Early detection of tuberculosis (TB) cases and supervised treatment are vital for control of the disease. To assess TB transmission from a sputum smear-negative pulmonary TB case, the contacts of a 15-year-old Iranian girl diagnosed with smear-negative TB in 2010 were traced. In all, 52 classmates and close friends and 15 school staff were screened by tuberculin skin test and chest X-ray. Those...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Tuberculosis (TB) is a major problem in the world. Treatment and control of TB needs detection of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MT) in the proper samples. While smear doesn't have enough sensitivity, culture and PCR are expensive, time consuming and unavailable in many centers. Recent development of a rapid TB antigen detection test (PrTBK) at Pasteur Institute of Ir...

Comprehensive new guidelines for screening, targeted testing, and treating latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) in children and adolescents are presented. The recent epidemiology of TB and data on risk factors for LTBI are reviewed. The evidence-based recommendations provided emphasize the paradigm that children and adolescents should be screened for risk factors by using a risk-factor question...

Multidrug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains are widespread and present a challenge to effective treatment of this infection. The need for a low-cost and rapid detection method for clinically relevant mutations in Mycobacterium tuberculosis that confer multidrug resistance is urgent, particularly for developing countries. We report here a novel test that detects the majority of clinic...