Publications by authors named "Kathryn Chaka"
Background: Accurate diagnosis of latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) in recently exposed HIV-infected tuberculosis (TB) contacts is a public health priority because of the high risk of progression to active TB but is hampered by the high background prevalence of LTBI in high-burden populations and poor sensitivity of tuberculin skin testing (TST) in HIV co-infection.
Methods: The prevalence of LTBI in 222 recent household contacts of TB cases and 176 household contacts of community controls without TB in Harare, Zimbabwe were compared using TST and interferon gamma enzyme-linked immunospot (ELISpot) responses to ESAT-6 (early secretory antigenic target-6) and CFP-10 (culture filtrate protein-10). TST and ELISpot results were correlated with markers of recent TB exposure and the impact of HIV co-infection was assessed.
Background: African hospitals have experienced major increases in admissions for tuberculosis, but they are ill-equipped to prevent institutional transmission. We compared institutional rates and community rates of tuberculin skin test (TST) conversion in Harare, Zimbabwe.
Methods: We conducted a cohort study of TST conversion 6, 12, and 18 months into training among 159 nursing and 195 polytechnic school students in Harare.