Digital health in the era of COVID-19: Reshaping the next generation of healthcare.

COVID-19 is one of the most deadly diseases to have stricken us in recent decades. In the fight against this disease, governments and stakeholders require all the assistance they can get from various systems, including digital health interventions. Digital health technologies are supporting the tracking of the COVID-19 outbreak, diagnosing patients, expediting the process of finding potential medicines and vaccines, and disinfecting the environment, The establishment of electronic medical and health records, computerized clinical decision support systems, telemedicine, and mobile health have shown the potential to strengthen the healthcare system.

Post tuberculosis chronic lung disease in tuberculosis HIV coinfected and non-HIV individuals in Sub-Saharan Africa: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Post tuberculosis (TB) sequelae are faced by many individuals who survive TB. The most common of all is post-TB chronic lung disease (CLD) and pulmonary impairment. We reviewed studies that estimated the prevalence of post-TB CLD in patients with TB only and those with TB-HIV coinfection.

COVID-19 and Health Sector Development Plans in Africa: The Impact on Maternal and Child Health Outcomes in Uganda.

Introduction: Health Sector Development Plans (HSDPs) aim to accelerate movement towards achieving sustainable development goals for health, reducing inequalities, and ending poverty. Reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health (RMNCH) services are vulnerable to economic imbalances, including health insecurity, unmet need for healthcare, and low health expenditure. The same vulnerability influences the potential of a country to combat global outbreaks such as the COVID-19.

Programmatic challenges in managing multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in Malawi.

Background: Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is one of the most urgent challenges that Malawi tends to take a firm public health action. A recent increase in multidrug MDR-TB cases, a decrease in treatment success rate, and a double increase of lost-to-follow-up call into question the country's programmatic management of MDR-TB (PMDT). As such, the study aimed at exploring programmatic challenges in managing MDR-TB in Malawi.

Molecular bacterial load assay versus culture for monitoring treatment response in adults with tuberculosis.

The lack of rapid, sensitive, and deployable tuberculosis diagnostic tools is hampering the early diagnosis of tuberculosis and early detection of treatment failures. The conventional sputum smear microscopy or Xpert MTB/RIF assay cannot distinguish between alive and dead bacilli and the culture method delays providing results. Tuberculosis molecular bacterial load assay is a reverse transcriptase real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction that quantifies viable tuberculosis bacillary load as a marker of treatment response for patients on anti-tuberculosis therapy.

Pyrosequencing for diagnosis of multidrug and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis: A systemic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Multidrug and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (M/XDR-TB) pose major threats to global health. Diagnosis accuracy and delay have been the major drivers for the upsurge of M/XDR-TB. Pyrosequencing (PSQ) is a novel, real-time DNA sequencing for rapid detection of mutations associated with M/XDR-TB.

Population Pharmacokinetic Model and Limited Sampling Strategies for Personalized Dosing of Levofloxacin in Tuberculosis Patients.

Levofloxacin is an antituberculosis drug with substantial interindividual pharmacokinetic variability; therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) could therefore be helpful to improve treatment results. TDM would be more feasible with limited sampling strategies (LSSs), a method to estimate the area under the concentration curve for the 24-h dosing interval (AUC) by using a limited number of samples. This study aimed to develop a population pharmacokinetic (popPK) model of levofloxacin in tuberculosis patients, along with LSSs using a Bayesian and multiple linear regression approach.

Urine colorimetry for therapeutic drug monitoring of pyrazinamide during tuberculosis treatment.

Objectives: Pyrazinamide is a key drug in the first-line treatment regimen for tuberculosis, with a potent sterilizing effect. Although low pyrazinamide peak serum concentrations (C) are associated with poor treatment outcomes, many resource-constrained settings do not have sufficient laboratory capacity to support therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM). The objective of this study was to determine whether a colorimetric test of urine can identify tuberculosis patients with adequate pyrazinamide exposures, as defined by serum C above a target threshold.

Pharmacokinetics, Tolerability, and Bacteriological Response of Rifampin Administered at 600, 900, and 1,200 Milligrams Daily in Patients with Pulmonary Tuberculosis.

In a multiple-dose-ranging trial, we previously evaluated higher doses of rifampin in patients for 2 weeks. The objectives of the current study were to administer higher doses of rifampin for a longer period to compare the pharmacokinetics, safety/tolerability, and bacteriological activity of such regimens. In a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, phase II clinical trial, 150 Tanzanian patients with tuberculosis (TB) were randomized to receive either 600 mg (approximately 10 mg/kg of body weight), 900 mg, or 1,200 mg rifampin combined with standard doses of isoniazid, pyrazinamide, and ethambutol administered daily for 2 months.

High-dose rifampicin, moxifloxacin, and SQ109 for treating tuberculosis: a multi-arm, multi-stage randomised controlled trial.

Background: Tuberculosis is the world's leading infectious disease killer. We aimed to identify shorter, safer drug regimens for the treatment of tuberculosis.

Methods: We did a randomised controlled, open-label trial with a multi-arm, multi-stage design.

Plasma drug activity in patients on treatment for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis.

Little is known about plasma drug concentrations relative to quantitative susceptibility in patients with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB). We previously described a TB drug activity (TDA) assay that determines the ratio of the time to detection of plasma-cocultured Mycobacterium tuberculosis versus control growth in a Bactec MGIT system. Here, we assess the activity of individual drugs in a typical MDR-TB regimen using the TDA assay.

Diagnosis and interim treatment outcomes from the first cohort of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis patients in Tanzania.

Setting: Kibong'oto National Tuberculosis Hospital (KNTH), Kilimanjaro, Tanzania.

Objective: Characterize the diagnostic process and interim treatment outcomes from patients treated for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) in Tanzania.

Design: A retrospective cohort study was performed among all patients treated at KNTH for pulmonary MDR-TB between November 2009 and September 2011.