House calls by community health workers and public health nurses to improve adherence to isoniazid monotherapy for latent tuberculosis infection: a retrospective study.

Background: Patient adherence to isoniazid (INH) monotherapy for latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) has been suboptimal despite its proven efficacy. Various strategies have been studied to improve adherence, but all have been based at a clinic or treatment program. At the Santa Clara Valley Tuberculosis Clinic, it was our practice to refer a subset of high-risk LTBI patients to the Public Health Department for monthly follow-up at home instead of at the clinic.

Decreasing intestinal parasites in recent Northern California refugees.

Beginning in 2005, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) expanded the overseas presumptive treatment of intestinal parasites with albendazole to include refugees from the Middle East. We surveyed the prevalence of helminths and protozoa in recent Middle Eastern refugees (2008-2010) in comparison with refugees from other geographical regions and from a previous survey (2001-2004) in Santa Clara County, California. Based on stool microscopy, helminth infections decreased, particularly in Middle Eastern refugees (0.

Active and latent tuberculosis in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus living in the United States.

Background: The prevalence and clinical course of tuberculosis infection have not been well described in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in the United States.

Objective: This study documents the demographic, clinical, and laboratory characteristics and outcomes of patients with SLE and latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) or active TB in an ethnically diverse clinic.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective review of clinical records of patients with SLE followed during 2005 in a county community hospital rheumatology clinic, with a large immigrant population.

Peripheral tuberculous lymphadenitis: epidemiology, diagnosis, treatment, and outcome.

We reviewed 106 patients referred to our institution for treatment of peripheral tuberculous adenitis to establish the epidemiologic, clinical, and pathologic manifestations of this disease. Tuberculous lymphadenitis occurred predominantly in young, foreign-born women a mean of 5 years after arrival in the United States. Tuberculin skin tests were positive in 94% of cases.

Ebola hemorrhagic fever in the era of bioterrorism.

Viral hemorrhagic fevers are among a small group of infectious diseases considered potential candidates for use as agents of bioterrorism. Ebola hemorrhagic fever, the focus of this article, has the highest mortality rate of the viral hemorrhagic fevers and has no effective treatment. It is transmitted easily to family members and health care professionals not following universal precautions.