Barriers and facilitators to tuberculosis diagnosis in Lima, Peru: a mixed methods study.

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) infectiousness decreases significantly with only a few days of treatment, but delayed diagnosis often leads to late treatment initiation. We conducted a sequential explanatory mixed methods study to understand the barriers and facilitators to prompt diagnosis among people with TB.

Methods: We enrolled 100 adults who started TB treatment in the Carabayllo district of Lima, Peru, between November 2020 and February 2022 and administered a survey about their symptoms and healthcare encounters.

Prevalence of elevated liver transaminases and their relationship with alcohol use in people living with HIV on anti-retroviral therapy in Uganda.

Background: Isoniazid preventive therapy (IPT) reduces tuberculosis reactivation and mortality among persons living with HIV (PLWH), yet hepatotoxicity concerns exclude "regular and heavy alcohol drinkers" from IPT. We aimed to determine the prevalence of elevated liver transaminases among PLWH on antiretroviral therapy (ART) who engage in alcohol use.

Setting: The Immune Suppression Syndrome Clinic of Mbarara, Uganda.

FDG-PET/CT activity leads to the diagnosis of unsuspected TB: a retrospective study.

Objective: Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection leads to latent or active tuberculosis (TB). Increased uptake on F-fluoro-2-deoxy-glucose-positron emission tomography/computed tomography (FDG-PET/CT) has been reported in the lungs and lymph nodes of individuals with recent infection and active TB, but not in individuals without known recent exposure or suggestive symptoms. We describe five patients with lung nodules not suspected to be due to TB in whom abnormalities on FDG-PET/CT scans ultimately were attributed to TB infection.

Lysosome-Mediated Plasma Membrane Repair Is Dependent on the Small GTPase Arl8b and Determines Cell Death Type in Infection.

is an extremely successful pathogen, and its success is widely attributed to its ability to manipulate the intracellular environment of macrophages. A central phenomenon of tuberculosis pathology enabling immune evasion is the capacity of virulent (H37Rv) to induce macrophage necrosis, which facilitates the escape of the mycobacteria from the macrophage and spread of infection. In contrast, avirulent (H37Ra) induces macrophage apoptosis, which permits Ag presentation and activation of adaptive immunity.

Advances in basic and translational tuberculosis research: Proceedings of the first meeting of RePORT international.

RePORT International is a collaborative research network of investigators from multiple countries and institutions with the goal of establishing a bio-repository of specimens and clinical data for the study of active TB and latent TB infection (LTBI). During the first meeting of RePORT International in Boston, Massachusetts, the results of research pertinent to TB control and eradication were presented, including advances in the research of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) persistence and drug resistance, TB diagnostics, drug and vaccine development.

Latent tuberculosis infection--Revisiting and revising concepts.

Host- and pathogen-specific factors interplay with the environment in a complex fashion to determine the outcome of infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), resulting in one of three possible outcomes: cure, latency or active disease. Although much remains unknown about its pathophysiology, latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) defined by immunologic evidence of Mtb infection is a continuum between self-cure and asymptomatic, yet active tuberculosis (TB) disease. Strain virulence, intensity of exposure to the index case, size of the bacterial inoculum, and host factors such as age and co-morbidities, each contribute to where one settles on the continuum.