BACKGROUND Despite the existence of effective drug treatments, tuberculosis (TB) causes 2 million deaths annually worldwide. Effective treatment is complicated by multidrug-resistant TB (MDR TB) strains that respond only to second-line drugs. We projected the health benefits and cost-effectiveness of using drug susceptibility testing and second-line drugs in a lower-middle-income setting with h...

OBJECTIVE To examine the results of an interventionist approach applied to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected children for whom caregiver nonadherence was suspected as the cause of treatment failure. METHODS The medical records of a cohort of 16 perinatally HIV-infected children whose care was managed at the Arkansas Children's Hospital Pediatric HIV Clinic for an uninterrupted perio...

STUDY OBJECTIVE The standard daily dose of rifampin in directly observed treatment of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB) is 600 mg, taken orally. The purpose of this study was to assess the efficacy of standard dose rifampin therapy in patients who were slow to respond to routine directly observed therapy (DOT). METHODS Patients with non-drug-resistant pulmonary TB who were receiving 600 mg of o...

The World Health Organization (WHO) is challenging all countries, both highand low-incidence, to dramatically intensify efforts to meet bold new goals of reducing global tuberculosis (TB) deaths by 95% and the incidence by 90% (<10 cases per 100000 population) by 2035 [1]. This radical strategic change came from the recognition that the current strategy of passive case finding and directly obse...

Poor initiation and implementation and premature discontinuation of anti-tuberculous therapy, all forms of nonadherence, are major reasons for treatment failure, the development of drug-resistant tuberculosis, and transmission to other non-infected individuals. Directly Observed Therapy (DOT) has been the worldwide standard, but implementation of DOT is burdensome for providers and patients, es...

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is a life-threatening disease. Traditional treatment with pentavalent antimony injections has become ineffective in the area with the world's highest prevalence of disease (North Bihar, India) and is becoming less effective elsewhere as well. A replacement is needed, best if it can be given to more patients outside the hospital. Miltefosine is the first oral drug reg...

If at least 1 sample was positive for M. bovis, the prevalence of bovine TB among patients would be >4.2%. However, the prevalence of M. bovis was <4.2% and confi rmed the lowlevel involvement of M. bovis in human TB in Mbarara district. These fi ndings are consistent with previous work in Uganda’s capital, Kampala, and in other African or Asian countries (2,8,9). The estimation of extrapulmona...

In Australia, patients with diagnosed or clinically suspected TB are treated under the guidance of a specialist with training in TB management. Standard therapy for TB follows international and Australian guidelines and traditionally involves an intensive phase of drug therapy followed by a continuation phase. The majority of treatment – with only rare exceptions – is administered by directly o...