Patients are paying too much for tuberculosis: a direct cost-burden evaluation in Burkina Faso.

Background: Paying for health care may exclude poor people. Burkina Faso adopted the DOTS strategy implementing "free care" for Tuberculosis (TB) diagnosis and treatment. This should increase universal health coverage and help to overcome social and economic barriers to health access.

Systemic exposure to rifampicin in patients with tuberculosis and advanced HIV disease during highly active antiretroviral therapy in Burkina Faso.

Objectives: Low plasma concentrations of rifampicin, an essential antituberculosis drug, have been reported particularly among HIV co-infected persons. In a prospective, longitudinal study we measured rifampicin systemic exposure at different timepoints during highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART).

Patients And Methods: From May 2006 to April 2007, 16 tuberculosis (TB)/HIV co-infected patients were enrolled in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

Extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis, Burkina Faso.

Because data from countries in Africa are limited, we measured the proportion of extensively drug-resistant (XDR) tuberculosis (TB) cases among TB patients in Burkina Faso for whom retreatment was failing. Of 34 patients with multidrug-resistant TB, 2 had an XDR TB strain. Second-line TB drugs should be strictly controlled to prevent further XDR TB increase.