Respiratory Infections News

Person-to-person transmission may be the primary driver of an epidemic of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis in South Africa that has exploded over the past 15 years, the scale of which matches the incidence rate of all forms of TB in the United States, according to researchers.

New research found that a community-based strategy involving a nucleic-acid amplification test that can detect both Mycobacterium tuberculosis DNA and rifampicin resistance increased the rate of tuberculosis case detection and early treatment initiation.  

Second-line tuberculosis treatments with aminoglycosides have been associated with hearing loss, but researchers in the Netherlands have discovered that carefully reducing the recommended dose by half could spare patients this side effect without sacrificing the regimen’s efficacy.

Based on their modelling study, researchers predict that India will experience an epidemic of drug-resistant tuberculosis in the next two decades if changes are not made to the way patients are managed in the public and private sectors.

Evidence-based strategies are urgently needed for detecting, preventing and treating multidrug-resistant tuberculosis among migrant populations in low-incidence countries in Europe, according to a narrative review published in Clinical Microbiology and Infection.

Recent data from a population-based, observational study in China revealed that patients were more likely to develop multidrug-resistant tuberculosis from person-to-person transmission than from inadequate treatment.

Treating patients with isoniazid-resistant tuberculosis with first-line drugs results in higher levels of failure, relapse and acquired drug resistance than among those infected with drug-susceptible strains of tuberculosis, according to a systematic review and meta-analysis published in Lancet Infectious Diseases.

Administering a repurposed drug to treat tuberculosis through the lungs instead of orally is effective at a dose estimated up to 10 times less, and can potentially reduce toxicity to the body, according to new research presented at the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists annual meeting.

The CDC reported that tuberculosis is the leading pathogen killer in the world again, with between 1.8 million to 10.4 million people infected annually and causing an estimated 1.5 million deaths. This significant resurgence — comparable to the spike in incidences in 1991 — led the CDC to declare a new national strategy is needed. Further, the main challenges in eliminating TB are political commitment and losing expertise in public health, Jeffrey R. Starke, MD, professor of pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine, said in his presentation.

The San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency reports two new cases of tuberculosis exposure at Sweetwater High School and Serra High School.