Building a virtual community of practice The evolution of the TBPPM learning network, India chapter

India's National Tuberculosis (TB) Elimination Program strategically involves private providers to achieve its 2025 goal of ending TB. The government's patient-provider support agency scheme (PPSA) aims to expand the Public-Private Mix (PPM) strategy using domestic resources, though challenges persist in cross-learning and documentation. The TB Public Private Mix Learning Network (TBPPM-LN) launched its India chapter in 2021, connecting PPM stakeholders virtually. With 600 + members, TBPPM-India, acting as a digital Community of Practice, is pivotal in fostering a learning culture, leading knowledge-sharing initiatives, and disseminating TBPPM field innovations, contributing significantly to India's intensified efforts against TB.

Partnering with the private laboratories to strengthen TB diagnostics in Nigeria

Despite being curable and preventable, tuberculosis (TB) affected 10 million people worldwide in 2020. In the seven highest TB burden countries, private providers account for more than two-thirds of initial care seeking. Closing gaps and finding the "missing people" with TB requires engagement of the private sector for better diagnostics and treatment. This review explores the efforts of a public-private partnership to enhance TB diagnostics in Nigeria, covering logistics and the distribution of GeneXpert machines and other diagnostic tools. Over three years, the Nigerian "hub and spoke" model led to a 28-fold increase in referrals of people with presumed TB in private diagnostic facilities. Various stakeholders' perspectives are also included, providing insight into opportunities and challenges of working with the private sector in this effort. As countries tackle the setbacks brought by COVID-19 and move towards reaching the End TB targets, partnerships such as these can strengthen the foundations of health systems.

Tuberculosis in times of COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused widespread disruptions to tuberculosis (TB) care and service delivery in 2020, setting back progress in the fight against TB by several years. As newer COVID-19 variants continue to devastate many low and middle-income countries in 2021, the extent of this setback is likely to increase. Despite these challenges, the TB community can draw on the comprehensive approaches used to manage COVID-19 to help restore progress and mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on TB. Our team developed the ‘Swiss Cheese Model for Ending TB’ to illustrate that it is only through multisectoral collaborations that address the personal, societal and health system layers of care that we will end TB. In this paper, we examine how COVID-19 has impacted the different layers of TB care presented in the model and explore how we can leverage some of the lessons and outcomes of the COVID-19 pandemic to strengthen the global TB response.

Diagnostic accuracy of point-of-care ultrasound for pulmonary tuberculosis: A systematic review

The advent of affordable, portable ultrasound devices has led to increasing interest in the use of point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) for the detection of pulmonary TB (PTB). We undertook a systematic review of the diagnostic accuracy of POCUS for PTB. Five databases were searched for articles published between January 2010 and June 2020. Risk of bias was assessed using QUADAS-2. Data on sensitivity and specificity of individual lung ultrasound findings were collected, with variable reference standards including PCR and sputum smear microscopy. Six of 3,919 reviewed articles were included: five in adults and one in children, with a total sample size of 564. Studies had high risk of bias in many domains. In adults, subpleural nodule and lung consolidation were the lung ultrasound findings with the highest sensitivities, ranging from 72.5% to 100.0% and 46.7% to 80.4%, respectively. Only one study reported specificity data. Variability in sensitivity may be due to variable reference standards or may imply operator dependence. There is insufficient evidence to judge the diagnostic accuracy of POCUS for PTB. There is also no consensus on the optimal protocols for acquiring and analysing POCUS images for PTB. New studies which minimise potential sources of bias are required to further assess the diagnostic accuracy of POCUS for PTB.

TB and COVID - Public and private health sectors adapt to a new reality

Health systems across the world have been baffled by the COVID19 pandemic. Tuberculosis (TB) care and prevention especially in high burden countries has faced disruption to their routine services. Though these setbacks were predicted by many modelling studies, reports and surveys from the field convey the hard reality faced by the TB services. However, health systems have not given up and have become resilient by adapting interesting strategies to overcome these obstacles. The private health sector has also stepped up to the occasion by supporting national TB programs through innovative approaches. The scientific community has laid down several evidence-based recommendations to help TB programs get back on track. Its time to unite these forces to not just overcome the challenge posed by the pandemic but also to build a more resilient health system.

Factors associated with sputum culture conversion in multidrug-resistant pulmonary tuberculosis

INTRODUCTION

Sputum culture conversion in pulmonary multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is important to make treatment-related decisions and prevent transmission of disease.

OBJECTIVE

To identify factors associated with sputum culture conversion, and to determine time to culture conversion and the impact of culture conversion on successful treatment outcomes in MDR-/rifampicin (RMP) resistant TB.

METHOD

Retrospective analysis of data from treatment cards and registers of MDR-/RMP-resistant patients initiated on treatment under India's Revised National TB Control Programme in Delhi, West Bengal and Kerala from January 2009 to December 2011. Proportions were calculated and logistic regression analysis was performed.

RESULTS

Of 836 patients, 787 were analysed, 651 (83%) of whom experienced culture conversion: respectively 57%, 73% and 79% culture converted by month 3, 4 and 6 of treatment. The median time to culture conversion was 91.3 days. Patients with body mass index (BMI) 16 kg/m2 (OR 0.403, P = 0.001) and 1618 kg/m2 (OR 0.519, P = 0.039) were less likely to have culture conversion. High rates of culture conversion were observed in patients with successful treatment outcomes compared to those without treatment success (462/469, 99% vs. 183/311, 59%; P 0.0001).

CONCLUSION

Low BMI is associated with poor sputum culture conversion in MDR-/RMP-resistant TB patients. Lack of culture conversion can impact successful treatment outcomes.

Household Contact Screening and Yield of Tuberculosis Cases-A Clinic Based Study in Chennai, South India

Background

Contact investigation is an active case finding strategy to increase detection of Tuberculosis (TB) and a key component of TB control programs. The household contacts are at a higher risk of exposure than members of the general population. The information on the value and yield of household contact screening and the approaches used in high incidence settings like India is limited.

Objective

To evaluate the yield of active case finding in household contacts of newly diagnosed smear positive TB patients and the factors associated with increased yield.

Method

Retrospective record review of the household contacts of newly diagnosed sputum smear positive patients (index case) enrolled in a clinical trial at National Institute of Research in Tuberculosis, Chennai during the period 2007–2014. A sequential screening algorithm with chest x-ray followed by symptom screen was employed to identify presumptive TB patients.

Results

643 household contacts of 280 index TB patients were identified out of which 544 (85%) consented for screening. 71/544 (13%) patients had an abnormal chest radiograph and out of them 70% were symptomatic. A total of 29/544 (5.3%) contacts were found to have TB among whom 23/29 (79%) were sputum smear positive. The number needed to screen (NNS) to identify a new TB case among all household contacts was 19 and among those with an abnormal CXR was 02. Age group > 44 years, male gender and siblings of the index case was associated with abnormal chest radiograph whereas age group between 15–44 was significantly associated with developing TB disease among household contacts.

Conclusion

Active screening among household contacts is an effective way to improve TB case detection. The yield for new TB cases among contacts with abnormal x-ray was high in this study and the use of Chest X-rays in combination with symptom screen is recommended.