Respiratory Infections News

Approximately 1 million treatment courses of new tuberculosis medicines designed for easy administration in children have been ordered by 93 countries since they were first introduced in 2016, according to the nonprofit organization TB Alliance.

The CDC has expanded its recommendation of a short-course combination regimen of once-weekly isoniazid and rifapentine for the treatment of latent tuberculosis infection to include children aged 2 to 11 years and patients with HIV/AIDS taking antiretroviral medications.

ATLANTA — In this video from the CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service conference, Victoria Hall, DVM, MS, EIS officer in the Minnesota Department of Health, discusses findings from an investigation into a fatal outbreak of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, or MDR-TB, in an ethnic Hmong community in Minnesota.

African giant pouched rats that are trained to detect tuberculosis identified hundreds of cases that were missed by clinic-based testing in Tanzania, according to findings recently published in Pediatric Research.

A genetic signature predicted the progression of tuberculosis in household contacts of active cases up to 2 years before disease onset, according to findings published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

Researchers estimated that reaching WHO’s No. 1 Sustainable Development Goal of ending extreme poverty and expanding social protection could reduce 84.3% of the world’s TB burden by 2035.

A daily antituberculosis regimen prevented rifampicin resistance and was more effective than an intermittent regimen among patients with HIV with pulmonary tuberculosis who were receiving antiretroviral therapy, according to findings published in JAMA Internal Medicine.

BOSTON — The addition of systematic urine screening to sputum screening identified more cases of tuberculosis and was associated with a 50% increase in treatment among hospitalized patients with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa, according to findings from the STAMP trial.

BOSTON — Results of a phase 2 randomized clinical trial show that up to twice the standard daily dose of rifampin was safe in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis. The findings suggest that TB therapy can be shortened using higher doses, which could potentially improve outcomes without increasing toxicity.

BOSTON — A 1-month antibiotic regimen to prevent active tuberculosis in patients living with HIV was just as effective and caused fewer adverse events than a standard 9-month regimen, according to results of a phase 3 clinical trial presented at CROI.