Study clinics treated a median of 99 patients (range 3-331) daily and a median of 15 TB patients (range 2-73) monthly. Of the rooms in the clinics, all of which rely on natural ventilation, half (149/284) had <= 5.12 air changes per hour. Eleven (22%) of 51 clinics had N95 masks available for staff use.
CONCLUSION: Limited infection control practices exist in clinics in a high TB burden setting in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. These practices Epigenetics inhibitor need to be implemented more widely to minimise
the spread of TB to non-infected patients and health care workers in primary health clinics.”
“SETTING: A total of 663 human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) care and treatment sites in nine tuberculosis (TB) affected African countries, serving over 900000 persons living with HIV.
OBJECTIVE: To determine the implementation of infection control (IC) measures and whether program and facility
characteristics were associated with implementation of these measures.
DESIGN: A survey was conducted to assess the presence of a TB IC plan, triage practices for TB suspects, location of sputum collection and availability of particulate respirators. The association of facility characteristics with IC measures was examined using bivariate BTSA1 chemical structure and multivariate methods.
RESULTS: Forty-seven per cent (range across countries [RAC] 2-77%) of sites had written TB IC plans; 60% (RAC 5-93%) practiced triage; of those with access to microscopy, 83% (RAC 59-91%) performed sputum collection outdoors and 13% (RAC 0-36%) in ventilated indoor rooms; 16% (RAC 1-87%) had particulate respirators available. Sites providing anti-tuberculosis treatment were more likely to have written IC plans (54% vs. 12%, P<0.0001) and particulate respirators (18% vs. 8%, P=0.0126), and to perform TB triage (65% vs. 40%, P=0.0001) than those
without anti-tuberculosis treatment services.
CONCLUSIONS: To protect HIV-infected patients and health care workers, there is an urgent need to scale up IC practices at HIV care and treatment sites, particularly at sites without anti-tuberculosis treatment services.”
“BACKGROUND: Israel absorbs many migrants from countries with a high prevalence of tuberculosis (TB).
OBJECTIVES: To describe the epidemiology of TB among adults in Israel between 1999 and 2010 and identify populations PF299804 with a high TB burden.
DESIGN: Data were retrieved from the National Tuberculosis Registry and the Israeli Bureau of Statistics.
RESULTS: A total of 4652 adult TB patients were notified during the study period, with rates decreasing annually from 7.5 per 100 000 population in 1999 to 4.3 in 2010. Most (n = 3745, 80.5%) had pulmonary TB, the average female:male ratio was 1:1.4, and 227 (5.1%) were infected with the human immunodeficiency virus. Of all TB patients, 4079 (87.6%) were born outside Israel; of these, 3338 were citizens and 741 non-citizen migrant workers (MWs).