Digital health solutions and integrated COVID-19 and TB services to help recover TB care and prevention services in the COVID-19 pandemic: A descriptive study in four high TB burden countries.

Background: The measures undertaken to control COVID-19 have disrupted many platforms including tuberculosis (TB) healthcare services. Consequently, declines in TB notifications have been observed in various countries. We visualized changes over time in TB and SARS-CoV-2 infection notifications and reported on country-specific strategies to retain TB care and prevention services in Kyrgyzstan, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Vietnam.

Newborn screening for sickle cell disease: an innovative pilot program to improve child survival in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Background: Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a recognized cause of childhood mortality. Tanzania has the fifth highest incidence of SCD (with an estimated 11 000 SCD annual births) worldwide. Although newborn screening (NBS) for SCD and comprehensive healthcare have been shown to reduce under-5 mortality by up to 94% in high-income countries such as the USA, no country in Africa has maintained NBS for SCD as a national health program.

Increased mortality associated with treated active tuberculosis in HIV-infected adults in Tanzania.

Active tuberculosis (TB) among HIV-infected patients, even when successfully treated, may be associated with excess mortality. We conducted a prospective cohort study nested in a randomized TB vaccine trial to compare mortality between HIV-infected patients diagnosed and treated for TB (TB, n = 77) and HIV-infected patients within the same CD4 range, who were not diagnosed with or treated for active TB (non-TB, n = 308) in the period 2001-2008. Only twenty four subjects (6%) were on antiretroviral therapy at the beginning of this study.

Recurrent tuberculosis risk among HIV-infected adults in Tanzania with prior active tuberculosis.

Background: Active tuberculosis is common among human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected persons living in tuberculosis-endemic areas, but the hazard of subsequent tuberculosis disease has not been quantified in a single prospective cohort.

Methods: Among HIV-infected, BCG-immunized adults with CD4 counts ≥200 cells/μL who received placebo in the DarDar tuberculosis vaccine trial in Tanzania, we compared the prospective risk of active tuberculosis between subjects who did and who did not report prior active tuberculosis. All subjects with a positive tuberculin skin test without prior active tuberculosis were offered isoniazid preventive treatment.

Molecular epidemiology of HIV-associated tuberculosis in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania: strain predominance, clustering, and polyclonal disease.

Molecular typing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis can be used to elucidate the epidemiology of tuberculosis, including the rates of clustering, the frequency of polyclonal disease, and the distribution of genotypic families. We performed IS6110 typing and spoligotyping on M. tuberculosis strains isolated from HIV-infected subjects at baseline or during follow-up in the DarDar Trial in Tanzania and on selected community isolates.