A qualitative exploration into the presence of TB stigmatization across three districts in South Africa.

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) stigma is a barrier to active case finding and delivery of care in fighting the TB epidemic. As part of a project exploring different models for delivery of TB contact tracing, we conducted a qualitative analysis to explore the presence of TB stigma within communities across South Africa.

Methods: We conducted 43 in-depth interviews with 31 people with TB and 12 household contacts as well as five focus group discussions with 40 ward-based team members and 11 community stakeholders across three South African districts.

Retrospective Assessment of a National Reflex Cryptococcal Antigen Screening Program in South Africa Through Interlaboratory Comparison of Lateral Flow Assay Results.

Objective: Reflex cryptococcal antigen (CrAg) screening of blood specimens with a CD4 count of <100 cells/µL was performed at 45 South African CD4 laboratories using a lateral flow assay (LFA). Our objective was to evaluate the reliability of routine LFA results through comparative interlaboratory testing.

Methods: All CrAg-positive and a selected number of CrAg-negative samples from the CD4 laboratories were retested at paired microbiology laboratories using the same LFA.

Exploring the promise and reality of ward-based primary healthcare outreach teams conducting TB household contact tracing in three districts of South Africa.

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) household contact tracing is a form of targeted active case-finding for which community health workers ('outreach teams') in South Africa are primarily responsible for its implementation. We conducted an exploratory qualitative study to understand the role of outreach teams in delivering TB household contact tracing.

Methods: The study took place in three districts of South Africa between May 2016 and February 2017.

Decreasing fluconazole susceptibility of clinical South African Cryptococcus neoformans isolates over a decade.

Background: Fluconazole is used in combination with amphotericin B for induction treatment of cryptococcal meningitis and as monotherapy for consolidation and maintenance treatment. More than 90% of isolates from first episodes of cryptococcal disease had a fluconazole minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) ≤4 μg/ml in a Gauteng population-based surveillance study of Cryptococcus neoformans in 2007-2008. We assessed whether fluconazole resistance had emerged in clinical cryptococcal isolates over a decade.