Respiratory Infections News

Among patients with rheumatic diseases, treatment with any biologic increases the risk for tuberculosis, both reactivation and new-onset, with an incidence rate among biologic users that is 10 times higher in South Africa than in European countries, according to data published in Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.

Repeat, routine testing for latent tuberculosis infection among patients receiving biologics is both costly and of low clinical value, according to findings presented at the 2019 ACR/ARP Annual Meeting.

An updated version of the Xpert Mycobacterium tuberculosis and rifampin assay, known as Ultra, demonstrated high sensitivity in diagnosing pulmonary tuberculosis in children compared with traditional bacteriologic testing, according to research published in Pediatrics.

Today marks World Lung Day, and this year’s theme is “healthy lungs for all.”

Although the rate of new tuberculosis cases among U.S. children and adolescents has decreased by nearly half in recent years, incidence of the disease remains disproportionately high among certain ethnic, racial and geographic communities, researchers reported in The Lancet Public Health.

The FDA has approved pretomanid — the first tuberculosis drug developed by a non-profit organization — as part of a three-drug regimen for the treatment of extensively drug-resistant TB, or XDR-TB, and other resistant forms of the disease.

About one-quarter of the world’s population may be infected with latent tuberculosis, according to a systematic review and meta-analysis published in the European Respiratory Journal.

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the NIH, has launched a trial investigating the safety and efficacy of delamanid for the prevention of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, or MDR-TB, the NIH announced.

Two tests are currently available to assist with the diagnosis of tuberculosis: tuberculin skin tests, or TSTs, and an interferon-gamma release assay, or an IGRA blood test.

Occupational hazards, which include inhaling vapors, gas, dust or fumes at work, may be responsible for a number of noncancerous lung diseases, according to a joint American Thoracic Society and European Respiratory Society statement.