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Background: Since 2018, over 14 million people have been treated for tuberculosis (TB) globally. However, pre-treatment loss to follow-up (PTLFU) has been shown to contribute substantially to patient losses in the TB care cascade with subsequent high community transmission and mortality rates., Objective: To identify, appraise, and synthesise evidence on the perspectives of patients and healthcare workers on factors contributing to PTLFU in adults with pulmonary TB., Methods: We registered the title with PROSPERO (CRD42021253212). We searched nine relevant databases up to 24 May 2021 for qualitative studies. Two review authors independently reviewed records for eligibility and extracted data. We assessed methodological quality with the Evidence for Policy and Practice Information Centre tool and synthesised data using the Supporting the Use of Research Evidence framework. We assessed confidence in our findings using Confidence in the Evidence from Reviews of Qualitative Research (GRADE-CERQual)., Results: We reviewed a total of 1239 records and included five studies, all from low- and middle-income countries. Key themes reported by patients and healthcare workers were communication challenges among healthcare workers and between healthcare workers and patients; knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours about TB and its management; accessibility and availability of facilities for TB care; and human resource and financial constraints, weakness in management and leadership in TB programmes. Patients' change of residence, long waiting times, and poor referral systems were additional factors that contributed to patients disengaging from care. We had moderate confidence in most of our findings., Conclusion: Findings from our qualitative evidence synthesis highlight multiple factors that contribute to PTLFU. Central to addressing these factors will be the need to strengthen health systems and offer people-centred care.

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) contact tracing is a key strategy for containing TB and provides addition to the passive case finding approach. However, this practice has not been implemented in Tanzania, where there is unacceptably high treatment gap of 62.1% between cases estimated and cases detected. Therefore calls for more aggressive case finding for TB to close this gap. We aimed to determine the magnitude and predictors of bacteriologically-confirmed pulmonary TB among household contacts of bacteriologically-confirmed pulmonary TB index cases in the city of Mwanza, Tanzania., Methods: This study was carried out from August to December 2016 in Mwanza city at the TB outpatient clinics of Tertiary Hospital of the Bugando Medical Centre, Sekou-Toure Regional Hospital, and Nyamagana District Hospital. Bacteriologically-confirmed TB index cases diagnosed between May and July 2016 were identified from the laboratory registers book. Contacts were traced by home visits by study TB nurses, and data were collected using a standardized TB screening questionnaire. To detect the bacterioriologically-confirmed pulmonary TB, two sputum samples per household contact were collected under supervision for all household contacts following standard operating procedures. Samples were transported to the Bugando Medical Centre TB laboratory for investigation for TB using fluorescent smear microscopy, GeneXpert MTB/RIF and Löwenstein-Jensen (LJ) culture. Logistic regression was used to determine predictors of bacteriologically-confirmed pulmonary TB among household contacts., Results: During the study period, 456 household contacts from 93 TB index cases were identified. Among these 456 household contacts, 13 (2.9%) were GeneXpert MTB/RIF positive, 18 (3.9%) were MTB-culture positive and four (0.9%) were AFB-smear positive. Overall, 29 (6.4%) of contacts had bacteriologically-confirmed pulmonary TB. Predictors of bacteriologically-confirmed pulmonary TB among household contacts were7being married (Odds ratio [OR], 3.3; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.4-8.0; p = 0.012) and consuming less than three meals a day (OR, 3.7; 95% CI, 1.6-8.7; p = 0.009)., Conclusions: Our data suggest that in Mwanza, Tanzania, seven in 100 contacts living in the same house with a TB patient develop bacteriologically-confirmed pulmonary TB. These results therefore underscore the need to implement routine TB contact tracing to control tuberculosis in high TB burden countries such as Tanzania.

Introduction: Despite the introduction of new tests and guidelines for diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB), worldwide case detection rate of TB is still suboptimal. This could be in part explained by the poor implementation of TB diagnostic guidelines. We aim to identify, appraise and synthesise qualitative evidence exploring the barriers and facilitators to implementing TB diagnostic guidelines., Methods and Analysis: A systematic review of qualitative studies will be conducted. Relevant electronic databases will be searched and studies included based on predefined inclusion criteria. We will also search reference lists, grey literature, conduct forward citation searches and contact relevant content experts. An adaptation of the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme tool will be used to assess the methodological quality of included studies. Two authors will review the search output, extract data and assess methodological quality independently, resolving any disagreements by consensus. We will use the thematic framework analysis approach based on the Supporting the Use of Research Evidence thematic framework to analyse and synthesise our data. We will apply the Confidence in the Evidence from Reviews of Qualitative research approach to transparently assess our confidence in the findings of the systematic review., Ethics and Dissemination: This protocol has been registered with the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO), registration number CRD42016039790 TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: PROSPERO 2016: CRD42016039790. Available from http://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2017. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.)

Background: Several interventions for tuberculosis (TB) control have been recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) over the past decade. These include isoniazid preventive therapy (IPT) for HIV-infected individuals and household contacts of infectious TB patients, diagnostic algorithms for rule-in or rule-out of smear-negative pulmonary TB, and programmatic treatment for multidrug-resistant TB. There is no systematically collected data on the type of evidence that is publicly available to guide the scale-up of these interventions in low- and middle-income countries. We investigated the availability of published evidence on their effectiveness, delivery, and cost-effectiveness that policy makers need for scaling-up these interventions at country level., Methods and Findings: PubMed, Web of Science, EMBASE, and several regional databases were searched for studies published from 1 January 1990 through 31 March 2012 that assessed health outcomes, delivery aspects, or cost-effectiveness for any of these interventions in low- or middle-income countries. Selected studies were evaluated for their objective(s), design, geographical and institutional setting, and generalizability. Studies reporting health outcomes were categorized as primarily addressing efficacy or effectiveness of the intervention. These criteria were used to draw landscapes of published research. We identified 59 studies on IPT in HIV infection, 14 on IPT in household contacts, 44 on rule-in diagnosis, 19 on rule-out diagnosis, and 72 on second-line treatment. Comparative effectiveness studies were relatively few (n = 9) and limited to South America and sub-Saharan Africa for IPT in HIV-infection, absent for IPT in household contacts, and rare for second-line treatment (n = 3). Evaluations of diagnostic and screening algorithms were more frequent (n = 19) but geographically clustered and mainly of non-comparative design. Fifty-four studies evaluated ways of delivering these interventions, and nine addressed their cost-effectiveness., Conclusions: There are substantial gaps in published evidence for scale-up for five WHO-recommended TB interventions settings at country level, which for many countries possibly precludes program-wide implementation of these interventions. There is a strong need for rigorous operational research studies to be carried out in programmatic settings to inform on best use of existing and new interventions in TB control.