Posted by Sara Fazio • December 9th, 2011
Treatment of latent TB is an important public-health strategy, but 9 months of daily isoniazid (270 doses) poses challenges for compliance. In a new study, 3 months of weekly isoniazid plus rifapentine (12 doses) was found to be noninferior to 9 months of isoniazid alone. Tuberculosis results in nearly 2 million deaths annually worldwide. Treatment… Read More…
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Posted by Graham McMahon • October 21st, 2011
When to initiate antiretroviral therapy in patients with newly diagnosed HIV infection and TB has been debated. In a new study from Cambodia, giving antiretrovirals 2 weeks after the start of TB therapy was superior to therapy begun at 8 weeks, with a decrease in mortality. Tuberculosis is a major cause of death in persons… Read More…
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Posted by Graham McMahon • August 12th, 2011
In a large, international study of HIV-1–serodiscordant couples, the receipt of antiretroviral therapy by the infected partner decreased transmission to the uninfected partner as well as rates of clinical events in the HIV-1–infected partner. Because the sexual transmission of HIV-1 from infected persons to their partners is strongly correlated with concentrations of HIV-1 in blood and in… Read More…
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Posted by John Staples • August 10th, 2011
Just for a moment, imagine that you’ve just finished treating me for active pulmonary tuberculosis. I’m cured and therefore happy. What’s more, my future roommates are happy: I’ll no longer aerosolize inocula of acid-fast bacilli with each chesty cough, and they won’t even be exposed to the disease. Even my future roommates’ future roommates probably… Read More…
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Posted by Graham McMahon • April 15th, 2011
The latest article in our Clinical Practice review series, Latent Tuberculosis Infection in the United States, comes from Drs. C. Robert Horsburgh, Jr. of Boston University School of Public Health and Eric J. Rubin of Harvard School of Public Health. There is no way to detect the presence of latent Mycobacterium tuberculosis in an individual… Read More…
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Posted by Graham McMahon • September 10th, 2010
The latest article in our Current Concepts review series, “MDR Tuberculosis — Critical Steps for Prevention and Control,” comes from the Stop TB Department at the World Health Organization in Geneva. Multidrug-resistant (MDR) tuberculosis is defined as disease caused by strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis that are at least resistant to treatment with isoniazid and rifampicin…. Read More…
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Posted by John Staples • September 8th, 2010
In the summer after my second year of medical school, I found myself in a hospital clinic in Swaziland with what was quickly becoming a familiar scenario: An unwell-looking woman from a remote village had traveled for many hours to seek our opinion on her cough and night sweats. Was it tuberculosis? It was a… Read More…
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