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A significant drop in tuberculosis (TB) case-finding has been widely reported during the period of the COVID-19 pandemic. To address a decrease in TB notification, Belarus introduced laboratory TB testing in patients with the laboratory-confirmed coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). We conducted a secondary analysis of health records among 844 patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis who were admitted to repurposed departments at TB hospitals and who were tested by Xpert MTB/RIF (Cepheid Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, USA) in five Belarus regions between April and October 2021. Quantitative analysis followed by 13 individual interviews with health managers, physicians, and nurses participating in the intervention. Most patients were male (64%) and mean age was 43.5 ± 16 years. One in twenty (n = 47, 5.6%) patients were co-infected with active pulmonary TB, and over one-third of them (n = 18) had rifampicin resistance. In-hospital mortality was comparable in patients with and without TB co-infection (2.1% and 2.3% respectively, p > 0.99). Laboratory TB testing among patients with COVID-19 at repurposed departments of TB hospitals is feasible in Belarus and may improve TB case-finding.

Latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) is characterised by the presence of immune responses to previously acquired Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection without clinical evidence of active tuberculosis (TB). Here we report evidence-based guidelines from the World Health Organization for a public health approach to the management of LTBI in high risk individuals in countries with high or middle upper income and TB incidence of, Guidelines on LTBI for low TB incidence countries – essential element of the @WHO #EndTB strategy and TB elimination http://ow.ly/RW8xn

Increasing attention is being given to the challenges of management and prevention of tuberculosis in children and adolescents. There have been a number of recent important milestones achieved at the global level to address this previously neglected disease. There is now a need to increase activities and build partnerships at the regional and national levels in order to address the wide policy-practice gaps for implementation, and to take the key steps outlined in the Roadmap for Child Tuberculosis published in 2013. In this article, we provide the rationale and suggest strategies illustrated with examples to improve diagnosis, management, outcomes and prevention for children with tuberculosis in the Asia-Pacific region, with an emphasis on the need for greatly improved recording and reporting. Effective collaboration with community engagement between the child health sector, the National Tuberculosis control Programmes, community-based services and the communities themselves are essential.

Tuberculosis affected an estimated 8.8 million people and caused 1.4 million deaths globally in 2010, including a half-million women and at least 64 000 children. It also results in nearly 10 million cumulative orphans due to parental deaths. Moreover, it causes 6%-15% of all maternal mortality, which increases to 15%-34% if only indirect causes are considered. Increasingly, more women with tuberculosis are notified than men in settings with a high prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and maternal tuberculosis increases the vertical transmission of HIV. Tuberculosis prevention, diagnosis, and treatment services should be included as key interventions in the integrated management of pregnancy and child health. Tuberculosis screening using a simple clinical algorithm that relies on the absence of current cough, fever, weight loss, and night sweats should be used to identify eligible pregnant women living with HIV for isoniazid preventive therapy or for further investigation for tuberculosis disease as part of services for prevention of vertical HIV transmission. While implementing these simple, low-cost, effective interventions as part of maternal, neonatal, and child health services, the unmet basic and operational tuberculosis research needs of children, pregnant, and breastfeeding women should be addressed. National policy makers, program managers, and international stakeholders (eg, United Nations bodies, donors, and implementers) working on maternal, neonatal, and child health, especially in HIV-prevalent settings, should give due attention and include tuberculosis prevention, diagnosis, and treatment services as part of their core functions and address the public health impacts of tuberculosis in their programs and services.

Childhood tuberculosis (TB) is a preventable and curable infectious disease that remains overlooked by public health authorities, health policy makers and TB control programmes. Childhood TB contributes significantly to the burden of disease and represents the failure to control transmission in the community. Furthermore, the pool of infected children constitutes a reservoir of infection for the future burden of TB. It is time to prioritise childhood TB, advocate for addressing the challenges and grasp the opportunities in its prevention and control. Herein, we propose a scientifically informed advocacy agenda developed at the International Childhood TB meeting held in Stockholm, Sweden, from March 17 to 18, 2011, which calls for a renewed effort to improve the situation for children affected by Mycobacterium tuberculosis exposure, infection or disease. The challenges and needs in childhood TB are universal and apply to all settings and must be addressed more effectively by all stakeholders.

On May 19, 2014, the 67th World Health Assembly (WHA) adopted WHO’s “Global strategy and targets for tuberculosis prevention, care and control after 2015”. This post-2015 global tuberculosis strategy, labelled the End TB Strategy, was shaped during the past 2 years. A wide range of stakeholders—from ministries of health and national tuberculosis programmes to technical and scientifi c institutions, fi nancial and development partners, civil society and health activists, non-governmental organisations, and the private sector—contributed to its development. The strategy has a vision of making the world free of tuberculosis, with zero deaths, disease, and suff ering due to the disease (see appendix p 1 for summary of the End TB Strategy). In 2013, 9 million people fell ill with tuberculosis and 1·5 million died; about a quarter of them were HIV positive. Poor and deprived groups also bore the brunt of the enormous socioeconomic burden imposed by the disease and deaths. Concerned by this persistent human suff ering due to tuberculosis, but encouraged by the progress achieved during the past two decades and recognising the need to mount a multisectoral response to eff ectively address the problem, the health ministers at the WHA approved WHO’s proposal to push the limit of ambition to “end the global tuberculosis epidemic” by 2035, marked by well defi ned milestones and targets set along the way. Ending the tuberculosis epidemic implies bringing the levels of tuberculosis in the whole world down to converge with those already attained by many rich countries: fewer than ten new tuberculosis cases occurring per 100 000 population per year amounting to 90% reduction in tuberculosis incidence and tuberculosis deaths reduced by 95%. The rich countries achieved remarkable reductions in the tuberculosis burden not only by delivering adequate tuberculosis services, but also by pursuing universal access to health care and social protection while rapidly improving nutrition and economic conditions. Ending the tuberculosis epidemic in high-incidence countries needs a similar approach that guarantees access to high-quality tuberculosis care and prevention to all while simul taneously addressing the social determinants of tuberculosis. To this eff ect, elimination of catastrophic costs that tuberculosis-aff ected families face is an important milestone to be achieved under the End TB Strategy well within the next decade. Importantly, though, achievement of universal access to currently available methods of tuberculosis care and prevention will not be enough to end the epidemic within two decades. Global investments and eff orts are also essential to develop improved methods to diagnose, treat, and prevent tuberculosis. Equal emphasis on achievement of universal access to tuberculosis care and prevention, addressing of weaknesses in health systems and social determinants of tuberculosis, and pursuing of research and innovation for improved approaches and strategies constitute the core of the End TB Strategy. The achievements of the past two decades provide the basis for further progress. The DOTS (directly observed treatment, short-course) strategy of 1995 expanded access to high-quality tuberculosis care. The Stop TB Strategy of 2006 widened its scope to address management of all forms of tuberculosis including HIV-associated and drug-resistant tuberculosis, through engagement of communities, involvement of all care providers, strengthening of health systems, and fostering of research. Subsequently, the tuberculosis-related Millennium Development Goal to “halt and begin to reverse the incidence of tuberculosis” was achieved; 37 million lives were saved between 2000 and 2013; and a new rapid molecular test to simultaneously diagnose tuberculosis and rifampicin resistance was developed and two novel drugs were introduced. These achievements notwithstanding, the enormity of the task ahead cannot be overemphasised. Overall, the current 2% annual reduction in the global tuberculosis incidence is too slow to achieve an end to the epidemic in the foreseeable future. Tuberculosis remains a top infectious killer of men and women. A third of estimated incident tuberculosis cases go un-notifi ed or undiagnosed and close to half a million multidrug-resistant cases emerge each year. HIV-associated tuberculosis aff ects more than a million people a year. An estimated 2 billion people with latent tuberculosis infection form a reservoir that sustains the global epidemic. Analyses of constraints to global tuberculosis control bring four major persisting barriers to the fore. First, weak health systems including the unregulated non-state sector prevent reaching the currently available methods of diagnosis and treatment to all sections of the populations and a lack of universal health coverage and social protection inhibit provision of comprehensive tuberculosis care and prevention without further impoverishment to those who need it most. Second, determinants such as poverty, under nutrition, migration, and ageing populations enhance vulnerability and maintain the cycle of infection and disease. The risk of tuberculosis is further enhanced by non-communicable health problems such as diabetes, harmful use of alcohol, and tobacco smoking. Third, the lack of optimum methods—a point-of-care test for rapid diagnosis of disease and latent infection; better and safer drug regimens to shorten treatment; and a vaccine to prevent Lancet 2015; 385: 1799–801

The incidence and prevalence of tuberculosis (TB) in children are increasing and becoming a particular problem in countries that are also affected by the HIV epidemic.1 Tuberculosis in children has been seen as hard to diagnose but at least in developed countries relatively easy to treat. However in children with HIV severe disease is more frequent and this has led to a reexamination of treatment regimens. (excerpt)