Publications by authors named "Paul Daru"
Article Synopsis
- * Conducted in nine health facilities, the study analyzed sputum samples from 1,084 TB patients, revealing a 6.4% general rate of INH resistance, notably higher in patients previously treated for TB.
- * Findings show that Hr-TB prevalence (4.5%) is more than double that of multi-drug-resistant TB (1.9%), underscoring the need for improved diagnostic methods for timely treatment of INH-resistant cases in the country.
Background: Bangladesh is a highly populous country where the prevalence of drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) is growing. With the rapid increase in DR-TB notifications through GeneXpert technology, it was imperative to come up with a new treatment strategy that could keep up with the increase of patients diagnosed.
Intervention: Intervention was designed to support national transition of DR-TB management of World Health Organization-approved long course (20-to-24-month regimen) treatment from a hospital-based approach to the decentralized model of community-based programmatic management of DR-TB (cPMDT).
Objective: Drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) threatens global TB control because it is difficult to diagnose and treat. Community-based programmatic management of drug-resistant TB (cPMDT) has made therapy easier for patients, but data on these models are scarce. Bangladesh initiated cPMDT in 2012, and in 2013, we sought to evaluate programme performance.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRationale: Based on expert opinion, the global guidelines for management of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis impose lengthy and often poorly tolerated treatments.
Objectives: This observational study evaluates the effectiveness of standardized regimens for patients with proven multidrug-resistant tuberculosis previously untreated with second-line drugs in low-income countries.
Methods: Consenting patients were sequentially assigned to one of six standardized treatment regimens.
In 1998, the Damien Foundation Bangladesh invited semi-qualified, private "gram dakter" (Bangla for "village doctors") to participate in tuberculosis (TB) programmes in a population of 26 million people in rural Bangladesh. The organization trained 12 525 village doctors to not only refer suspected TB cases for free diagnosis but also to provide directly observed treatment (DOT) free of charge. Source of referral and place of DOT was recorded as part of the standardized TB recording and reporting system, which enabled us to quantify the contribution of village doctors to case detection rates and also allowed disaggregated cohort analysis of treatment outcome.
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