Project description:This study was undertaken to evaluate clinical and laboratory parameters of 29 HIV-infected male patients with tuberculosis. Out of the 243 human immune deficiency virus (HIV) seropositive patients, 15 (6.2%) were diagnosed to be suffering from tuberculosis whereas out of 3502 cases of tuberculosis random HIV surveillance in 350 cases showed HIV infection in 14 (4%). Mantoux positivity at the time of diagnosis of tuberculosis was noted in 16 (55.1%) patients, and out of them 17.1% showed tuberculin conversion within 2 years of detection of HIV infection. Diagnosis of tuberculosis was based on demonstration of acid fast bacilli in sputum of 8 (27.6%), and in lymphnode aspirate in 4 (13.8%). Tubercular granuloma was demonstrated in 3 more patients, 2 in lymphnodes and one in liver parenchyma. In another 14 cases, there was classical clinical presentation and chest radiogram findings with excellent therapeutic response. Chest radiograms showed pulmonary infiltrate in 20, pleural effusion in 5, pleural thickening in 2, and intrathoracic adenopathy in 6 patients. Exclusive extrapulmonary tuberculosis was present in 4 patients.
Project description:There has been an increasing expectation that the food provided for athletes at major competition events meets the specific dietary and performance needs of athletes. The aim of this study was to map the range of food service nutrition schemes that were implemented prior to and during a major competition event (2018 Commonwealth Games) and evaluate these schemes through staff training satisfaction, athlete feedback, and quality assurance checks. This study followed a case study design with nutrition schemes as follows: informing (nutrition labelling), enabling (staff training, nutrition service), and engineering (modification to menus and recipes). Overall, participants reported that they easily found items on the menu that met their nutritional/dietary needs. When asked how useful the schemes were in helping them to identify items that meet their needs, the majority of participants found the nutrition cards (n = 227, 71%) and serving staff (n = 212, 66%) 'useful/very useful'. 'Good/very good' ratings were received by >90% of respondents for speed of service, staff politeness, and knowledge of the menu. Participants (n = 316) who rated the nutrition staff as 'useful/very useful' gave a higher median rating for the menu. Past events have focused on the impact of a single component in the food environment; however, taking a whole systems approach resulted in more suitable food provision to meet the dietary needs of athletes.
Project description:Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tb), the cause of tuberculosis (TB), utilizes the blood circulation to spread systemically and establish infection, and the risk of developing active TB (pulmonary and extrapulmonary) is significantly increased in individuals infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). In this work, we have used DNA microarray analysis to investigate the transcriptome of M. tb replicating in human whole blood from both HIV-negative and HIV-positive donors compared to M. tb grown in Middlebrook 7H9 broth media in order to identify M. tb adaptations to this host environment as well as M. tb mechanisms/factors contributing to increased active and disseminated TB during M. tb/HIV co-infection.
Project description:Patients with HIV-associated TB are known to experience systemic hyperinflammation, clinically known as immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome (IRIS), following the commencement of antiretroviral therapy (ART). No prognostic markers or biomarkers have been identified to date and little is known about the mechanism mediating the hyperinflammation. We recruited a prospective cohort of 63 patients with HIV-associated TB, 33 of whom developed TB-IRIS. Of which transcriptomic profiling was performed using longitudinal whole blood RNA samples from 15 non-IRIS and 17 TB-IRIS patients. Transcriptomic signatures that distinguish patients who would eventually develop IRIS were identified as early as week 0.5 (2-5 days post-ART) and predicted a downstream activation of proinflammatory cytokines. At the peak of IRIS (week 2), transcriptomic signatures were overrepresented by innate receptor signaling pathways including toll-like receptor, IL-1 receptor and TREM-1.
Project description:Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tb), the cause of tuberculosis (TB), utilizes the blood circulation to spread systemically and establish infection, and the risk of developing active TB (pulmonary and extrapulmonary) is significantly increased in individuals infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). In this work, we have used DNA microarray analysis to investigate the transcriptome of M. tb replicating in human whole blood from both HIV-negative and HIV-positive donors compared to M. tb grown in Middlebrook 7H9 broth media in order to identify M. tb adaptations to this host environment as well as M. tb mechanisms/factors contributing to increased active and disseminated TB during M. tb/HIV co-infection. We compared the global gene expression of M. tb H37Rv replicating in whole blood from 6 HIV- and 6 HIV+ individulas at 96 hr to M. tb grown to log phase in Middlebrook 7H9 media.
Project description:The overall goal of the project is to identify candidate biomarkers of Active infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) in individuals with or without HIV. Samples were analyzed from two tuberculosis (TB) endemic countries, Brazil and South Africa (SA), as well as from the United States (US). The US site included patients that were in the early stages of Active TB, with mean symptom duration of 1.5 months. The subjects from the Brazil site had mean symptom duration of 6 months, and the SA site subjects had advanced TB. All sites also provided samples asymptomatic for TB or with Latent TB infection. The US and SA sites also had subjects with and without HIV co-infection, whereas the Brazilian subjects were all HIV-. This specific dataset corresponds to the Discovery step of the study, for the US center.
Project description:BackgroundThe declaration of COVID-19 a pandemic by the World Health Organization on 11 March 2020 marked the beginning of a global health crisis of an unprecedented nature and scale. The approach taken by countries across the world varied widely, however, the delivery of frontline healthcare was consistently recognised as being central to the pandemic response. This study aimed to identify and explore the issues currently facing pharmacy teams across Commonwealth countries during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study also evaluates pharmacy professionals' understanding of key knowledge areas from the COVID-19 webinar hosted by the Commonwealth Pharmacists' Association (CPA).MethodA quantitative survey-based approach was adopted, using a 32-item questionnaire developed from the literature on pharmacy and pandemic response. The survey was hosted on Survey Monkey and pilot tested. The final survey was disseminated by CPA member organisations. A 6-item online questionnaire was sent via email to all attendees of CPA's COVID-19 webinar. Descriptive statistics on frequency distributions and percentages were used to analyse the responses. Data were analysed using Microsoft® Excel (2010).ResultsThere were 545 responses from pharmacy professionals across 31/54 Commonwealth countries in Africa, Asia, the Americas, Europe and the Pacific. Majority of the respondents reported being at least somewhat worried (90%) and more than 65% were very worried or extremely about the impact of COVID-19 on them personally and professionally. Nearly two-thirds of respondents stated finding it somewhat difficult or very difficult to work effectively during the pandemic. Challenges mostly faced by pharmacy professionals working remotely included; general anxiety about the impact of COVID-19 on their lives (12%), and difficulties in communicating with their co-workers (12%). Most pharmacy professionals had not previously been actively involved in a global health emergency (82%) nor obtained training on global/public health emergency preparedness (62%). Between 45 and 97% of the COVID-19 webinar attendees provided the correct answers to post-webinar questions, suggesting some improvement in knowledge.ConclusionOur study confirms pharmacy professionals' concerns about practice during a pandemic and provides preliminary data on the challenges and learning needs of the profession. The CPA has since acted on these findings, providing ongoing opportunities to develop and refine resources for the profession as the pandemic evolves. Pharmacy professionals have also demonstrated improved knowledge on the management of COVID-19 and resources available for professionals.
Project description:While the advent of combination antiretroviral therapy (ART) has significantly improved survival, tuberculosis (TB) remains the leading cause of death in the HIV-infected population. We used Mycobacterium tuberculosis/simian immunodeficiency virus-coinfected (M. tuberculosis/SIV-coinfected) macaques to model M. tuberculosis/HIV coinfection and study the impact of ART on TB reactivation due to HIV infection. Although ART significantly reduced viral loads and increased CD4+ T cell counts in blood and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) samples, it did not reduce the relative risk of SIV-induced TB reactivation in ART-treated macaques in the early phase of treatment. CD4+ T cells were poorly restored specifically in the lung interstitium, despite their significant restoration in the alveolar compartment of the lung as well as in the periphery. IDO1 induction in myeloid cells in the inducible bronchus-associated lymphoid tissue (iBALT) likely contributed to dysregulated T cell homing and impaired lung immunity. Thus, although ART was indispensable for controlling viral replication, restoring CD4+ T cells, and preventing opportunistic infection, it appeared inadequate in reversing the clinical signs of TB reactivation during the relatively short duration of ART administered in this study. This finding warrants the modeling of concurrent treatment of TB and HIV to potentially reduce the risk of reactivation of TB due to HIV to inform treatment strategies in patients with M. tuberculosis/HIV coinfection.
Project description:To compare epidemiological data between recurrent cases after cure (RC), distinguishing relapse from reinfection, after dropout (RD) and new cases (NC) in an ambulatory setting in a TB-endemic country.Records of patients who started treatment for pulmonary TB between 2004 and 2010 in a TB clinic were reviewed. Epidemiological data were analyzed. Spoligotyping and MIRU patterns were used to determine relapse or reinfection in 13 RC available.Of the eligible group (1449), 1060 were NC (73.2%), among the recurrent cases, 203 (14%) were RC and 186 (12.8%) were RD. Of RC, 171 (84.2%) occurred later than 6 months after a previous episode, 13 had available DNA, in 4 (30.7%) the disease was attributed to reinfection and in 9 (69.3%), to relapse. Comparing RC to NC, HIV (p?<?0.0001) was independent risk factor for RC. When RC and RD were compared, alcohol abuse (p?=?0.001) and treatment noncompliance (p?=?0.006) were more frequent in RD.HIV is the sole more important associated factor for RC. This finding points the need to improve the approach to manage TB in order to decrease the chance for exposure especially in vulnerable people with increased risk of developing disease and to improve DOTS strategy to deal with factors associated to treatment noncompliance.
Project description:Tuberculosis (TB) continues to be the leading cause of death for people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV), and HIV is the strongest known risk factor for progression to active TB disease for persons with latent TB infection (LTBI). Screening for active TB and LTBI, and TB preventive therapy (TPT) is recommended, however, clinical practices regarding LTBI screening for HIV positive population have not been uniform, resulting in low rates of LTBI screening and TPT uptake, in both low and high TB-burden countries. We sought to explore the practices and attitudes towards TB and LTBI screening in PLHIV among HIV physicians in Japan. We conducted a cross-sectional survey whereby an on-line questionnaire was administered to physicians who are currently, or have the experience of, providing care and treatment for PLHIV in Japan. The questionnaire was sent to a total of 83 physicians, of which 59 responded (response rate; 71.1%). 52.5% (31/59) conducted routine screening and 44.0% (26/59) conducted selectively screening for active TB among HIV/AIDS patients. As for LTBI, 54.2% (32/59) conducted routine screening and 35.6% (21/59) conducted selective screening for LTBI among PLHIV. "T-SPOT only" was the most frequently used method of screening (n = 33), followed by "QFT only" (n = 11). Criteria for LTBI screening included TB burden in the country of birth of the patient, previous contact with a TB patient, and CD4+ cell count. 83.1% (49/59) either "always" or "selectively" offered TPT to PLHIV diagnosed with LTBI, and among the 49 respondents who did provide TPT, 77.6% (38/49) chose 9-months isoniazid as their first choice. None chose regimen including rifampicin. Our study revealed that practices regarding TB and LTBI screening and treatment for PLHIV among HIV physicians were mixed and not necessarily in accordance with the various published guidelines. Building and disseminating scientific evidence that takes into consideration the local epidemiology of TB and HIV in Japan is urgently needed to assist physicians make decisions.