[The role of anaesthesia in global health].

The article explores the role of anaesthesia in global health and highlights key initiatives such as the Lancet Commission on Global Surgery and the National Surgical, obstetric and Anaesthesia Plans (NSOAP). Recognizing the global disparities in anaesthesia education, the article mentions the varying standards of training for anaesthesia providers worldwide as well as the problem of low status of providers. The article underscores a shift in focus from traditional aid models to capacity-building approaches, risks associated with indiscriminate donations of tools and technology to low and middle-income countries, as well as both positive and negative aspects of investing in education and training programs.

Risk factors for ventilator-associated lower respiratory tract infection in COVID-19, a retrospective multicenter cohort study in Sweden.

Background: Ventilator-associated lower respiratory tract infections (VA-LRTI) increase morbidity and mortality in intensive care unit (ICU) patients. Higher incidences of VA-LRTI have been reported among COVID-19 patients requiring invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV). The primary objectives of this study were to describe clinical characteristics, incidence, and risk factors comparing patients who developed VA-LRTI to patients who did not, in a cohort of Swedish ICU patients with acute hypoxemic respiratory failure due to COVID-19.

Reduced susceptibility of clinical strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis to reactive nitrogen species promotes survival in activated macrophages.

Background: Drugs such as isoniazid (INH) and pretomanid (PRT), used against Mycobacterium tuberculosis are active partly through generation of reactive nitrogen species (RNS). The aim of this study was to explore variability in intracellular susceptibility to nitric oxide (NO) in clinical strains of M. tuberculosis.

Asymptomatic Helminth Infection in Active Tuberculosis Is Associated with Increased Regulatory and Th-2 Responses and a Lower Sputum Smear Positivity.

Background: The impact of intestinal helminth infection on the clinical presentation and immune response during active tuberculosis (TB) infection is not well characterized. Our aim was to investigate whether asymptomatic intestinal helminth infection alters the clinical signs and symptoms as well as the cell mediated immune responses in patients with active TB.

Methodology: Consecutive, newly diagnosed TB patients and healthy community controls (CCs) were recruited in North-west Ethiopia.

Vitamin D enhances IL-1β secretion and restricts growth of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in macrophages from TB patients.

The emergence of multidrug-resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB), the bacterium responsible for tuberculosis (TB), has rekindled the interest in the role of nutritional supplementation of micronutrients, such as vitamin D, as adjuvant treatment. Here, the growth of virulent MTB in macrophages obtained from the peripheral blood of patients with and without TB was studied. The H37Rv strain genetically modified to express Vibrio harveyi luciferase was used to determine the growth of MTB by luminometry in the human monocyte-derived macrophages (hMDMs) from study subjects.

The impact of asymptomatic helminth co-infection in patients with newly diagnosed tuberculosis in north-west Ethiopia.

Background: Areas endemic of helminth infection, tuberculosis (TB) and HIV are to a large extent overlapping. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of asymptomatic helminth infection on the immunological response among TB patients with and without HIV, their house hold contacts and community controls.

Methodology: Consecutive smear positive TB patients (n = 112), their household contacts (n = 71) and community controls (n = 112) were recruited in Gondar town, Ethiopia.

Early treatment response evaluated by a clinical scoring system correlates with the prognosis of pulmonary tuberculosis patients in Ethiopia: a prospective follow-up study.

Background: In resource-limited settings the monitoring of tuberculosis (TB) patients is challenging, and early identification of TB patients with a high mortality risk is important. The aim of this study was to investigate prospectively whether early changes in a clinical scoring system (TB score) can predict treatment outcome in Ethiopian patients with pulmonary tuberculosis.

Method: TB patients (n = 250) and blood donors (n = 82) were recruited prospectively at Gondar University Hospital, Ethiopia.

Resistance to first-line anti-TB drugs is associated with reduced nitric oxide susceptibility in Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Background And Objective: The relative contribution of nitric oxide (NO) to the killing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in human tuberculosis (TB) is controversial, although this has been firmly established in rodents. Studies have demonstrated that clinical strains of M. tuberculosis differ in susceptibility to NO, but how this correlates to drug susceptibility and clinical outcome is not known.

Identification of drug susceptibility pattern and mycobacterial species in sputum smear positive pulmonary tuberculosis patients with and without HIV co-infection in north west Ethiopia.

Background: Ethiopia is among the high-burden countries of tuberculosis (TB) in the world Since mycobacterial culture and susceptibility testing are not routinely performed in Ethiopia, recent data on susceptibility patterns and the mycobacterial species cultured from sputum smear positive patients are limited.

Objectives: The aim was to determine first line anti-TB drug susceptibility of Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates obtained from consecutive newly diagnosed smear positive pulmonary TB patients in north west Ethiopia.

Methodology: A retrospective cross sectional study was conducted using previously collected sputum samples (n=180) kept at the referral hospital of the University of Gondar at -20 degrees C.

Kinetics of the QuantiFERON-TB Gold In-Tube test during treatment of patients with sputum smear-positive tuberculosis in relation to initial TST result and severity of disease.

The QuantiFERON-TB Gold In-Tube test (QFN) measures interferon-gamma production in response to Mycobacterium tuberculosis antigens. Our aim was to assess the kinetics of the QFN and initial tuberculin skin test (TST) result in relation to severity of disease in a tuberculosis (TB) endemic area. Smear-positive TB patients (n = 71) were recruited at Gondar University Hospital, Ethiopia.

Nitric oxide production in the exhaled air of patients with pulmonary tuberculosis in relation to HIV co-infection.

Background: Nitric oxide (NO) is essential for host defense in rodents, but the role of NO during tuberculosis (TB) in man remains controversial. However, earlier observations that arginine supplementation facilitates anti-TB treatment, supports the hypothesis that NO is important in the host defense against TB. Local production of NO measured in fractional exhaled air (FeNO) in TB patients with and without HIV co-infection has not been reported previously.