The impact of COVID-19 national lockdowns on drug-resistant tuberculosis in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa: A spatial analysis.

Purpose: We sought to understand the impact of the initial COVID-19 mitigation strategies in 2020 on drug-resistant (DR) TB diagnoses in KwaZulu-Natal province (KZN), South Africa.

Methods: We compared the number, spatial distribution, and characteristics of DR TB diagnoses before and after the initial COVID-19 lockdown on March 26th, 2020. Information on DR TB diagnoses was collected from the CONTEXT prospective cohort study and municipality characteristics were collected from Statistics South Africa.

Evaluating systematic targeted universal testing for tuberculosis in primary care clinics of South Africa: A cluster-randomized trial (The TUTT Trial).

Background: The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends systematic symptom screening for tuberculosis (TB). However, TB prevalence surveys suggest that this strategy does not identify millions of TB patients, globally. Undiagnosed or delayed diagnosis of TB contribute to TB transmission and exacerbate morbidity and mortality.

Performance of the GenoType MTBDR in a programmatic setting, South Africa.

The GenoType MTBDR v2 is a molecular test designed for the rapid detection of resistance to second-line anti-TB drugs in complex (MTBC). To assess the use of MTBDR in a programmatic setting and to describe the resistance patterns in a high HIV-TB-endemic area in South Africa. We performed a retrospective data analysis of all MTBDR results in patients with newly diagnosed rifampicin-resistant TB (RR-TB).

Bedaquiline resistance in drug-resistant tuberculosis HIV co-infected patients.

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