High-dose vitamin D(3) during intensive-phase antimicrobial treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis: a double-blind randomised controlled trial.

Background: Vitamin D was used to treat tuberculosis in the pre-antibiotic era, and its metabolites induce antimycobacterial immunity in vitro. Clinical trials investigating the effect of adjunctive vitamin D on sputum culture conversion are absent.

Methods: We undertook a multicentre randomised controlled trial of adjunctive vitamin D in adults with sputum smear-positive pulmonary tuberculosis in London, UK.

An evaluation of the completeness of reporting of childhood tuberculosis.

The sensitivity of the Enhanced Tuberculosis Surveillance (ETS) scheme for monitoring tuberculosis in children is unknown. We used the British Paediatric Surveillance Unit (BPSU) reporting scheme to conduct a prospective observational study of tuberculosis in children aged <16 yrs in the UK. Reported cases were then matched with records from the ETS database.