Publications by authors named "Peter Beckwith"
Article Synopsis
- Airborne pathogens like Mycobacterium tuberculosis in healthcare settings pose significant risks to both health workers and patients, particularly in South Africa where a 3-year project revealed critical issues in tuberculosis infection prevention and control (TB-IPC).
- Key findings highlight problems such as fragmented policies, clinic congestion, and inadequate facility designs that hinder effective TB-IPC interventions, with modeling studies demonstrating their economic viability in addressing tuberculosis burdens.
- The report advocates for improved coordination in policymaking, better clinic designs, budget allocations for TB-IPC implementation, and further research to enhance screening methods and patient management strategies in primary healthcare clinics.
Healthcare facilities are important sites for the transmission of pathogens spread via bioaerosols, such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Natural ventilation can play an important role in reducing this transmission. We aimed to measure rates of natural ventilation in clinics in KwaZulu-Natal and Western Cape provinces, South Africa, then use these measurements to estimate Mycobacterium tuberculosis transmission risk.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Tuberculosis (TB) case finding efforts typically target symptomatic people attending health facilities. We compared the prevalence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) sputum culture-positivity among adult clinic attendees in rural South Africa with a concurrent, community-based estimate from the surrounding demographic surveillance area (DSA).
Methods: Clinic: Randomly selected adults (≥18 years) attending 2 primary healthcare clinics were interviewed and requested to give sputum for mycobacterial culture.
Background: Elevated rates of tuberculosis in healthcare workers demonstrate the high rate of ) transmission in health facilities in high-burden settings. In the context of a project taking a whole systems approach to tuberculosis infection prevention and control (IPC), we aimed to evaluate the potential impact of conventional and novel IPC measures on transmission to patients and other clinic attendees.
Methods: An individual-based model of patient movements through clinics, ventilation in waiting areas, and transmission was developed, and parameterised using empirical data from eight clinics in two provinces in South Africa.
Tuberculosis (TB) remains the leading cause of hospitalization and in-hospital mortality in HIV-positive adults. Using data from hospital and clinic files, research databases, and autopsy, we describe causes and outcomes of admissions, and assess investigations for TB among adults with advanced HIV who were hospitalized after enrollment into the TB Fast Track trial in South Africa (2013-2015). A total of 251 adults [median CD4 count, 37.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- * Researchers tested two methods to estimate absolute ventilation rates in variable-occupancy rooms using carbon dioxide measurements and head counts from a primary healthcare clinic.
- * Both methods yielded similar results for ventilation rates, with the simpler linear regression being preferred because it does not require room volume measurements, aiding in efforts to improve air quality and reduce pathogen transmission.