Analysing Tuberculosis Cases Among Healthcare Workers to Inform Infection Control Policy and Practices.

OBJECTIVE To determine the number and proportion of healthcare worker (HCW) tuberculosis (TB) cases infected while working in healthcare institutions in the Netherlands and to learn from circumstances that led to these infections. DESIGN Cohort analysis. METHODS We included all HCW TB patients reported to the Netherlands TB Register from 2000 to 2015.

Biomarkers Can Identify Pulmonary Tuberculosis in HIV-infected Drug Users Months Prior to Clinical Diagnosis.

Background: Current diagnostic tests cannot identify which infected individuals are at risk for progression to tuberculosis (TB). Our aim was to identify biomarkers which can predict the development of TB prior to clinical diagnosis.

Method: In a retrospective case-control study, RNA of 14 HIV-infected drug users obtained before TB diagnosis (cases) and of 15 who did not develop TB (controls) was analyzed for the expression of 141 genes by dcRT-MLPA followed by Lasso regression analysis.

[Fatal tuberculosis during treatment with ruxolitinib].

Case Description: Two patients, 68 and 72 years old, were admitted with fever whilst under treatment with ruxolitinib for myelofibrosis. They had not been screened for latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) and extensive tuberculosis was found in both patients. They died within weeks from complications of fulminant disease.

The epidemiology of childhood tuberculosis in the Netherlands: still room for prevention.

Background: The occurrence of tuberculosis (TB) among children has long been neglected as a public health concern. However, any child with TB is a sentinel event indicating recent transmission. Vaccination, early case finding and treatment of those latently infected with TB can prevent cases, severe morbidity and unnecessary death.

Hepatotoxicity of rifampin-pyrazinamide and isoniazid preventive therapy and tuberculosis treatment.

Background: Severe liver injury has been attributed to preventive treatment of latent tuberculosis infection with a 2-month course of rifampin-pyrazinamide.

Methods: A retrospective cohort study in The Netherlands compared the hepatotoxicity of preventive treatment with rifampin-pyrazinamide with that of preventive treatment with isoniazid, and also with that of treatment for active tuberculosis containing at least isoniazid, rifampin, and pyrazinamide.

Results: Preventive treatment with rifampin-pyrazinamide caused severe hepatotoxicity more often than did preventive treatment with isoniazid (odds ratio [OR], 2.