Publications by authors named "O Bellinger"
Purpose: Few individuals that are latently infected with M. tuberculosis latent tuberculosis infection(LTBI) progress to active disease. We investigated risk factors for LTBI and active pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) in Germany.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Of this study was to compare the results of tuberculin skin test (TST) with two interferon-γ releasing-assays (IGRA) in a cohort of HIV positive patients, to analyze impact of prior Bacille-Calmette-Guérin (BCG)-vaccination.
Methods: Prospective cross sectional study, enrolling only asymptomatic adult HIV infected outpatients from a large German University hospital clinic. All participants were simultaneously tested for latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) by QuantiFERON-TB Gold, T-SPOT.
Background: Illicit drug use and homelessness are major contributors to the incidence of tuberculosis (TB) among inhabitants of major cities.
Objective: The primary objective of this study was to establish a sustainable low-threshold chest X-ray screening programme for pulmonary TB among illicit drug users and homeless persons and to integrate this into the existing public health programme for active case finding. A secondary objective was to estimate the coverage of the programme, assess other risk factors and determine TB rates and treatment outcome in these two groups.