Dataset Information

Adoption and uptake of the lateral flow urine LAM test in countries with high tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS burden: current landscape and barriers.

ABSTRACT: Background: Since 2015, the World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended a commercially available lateral-flow urine LAM test (Alere-LAM) to assist in the diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB) in severely ill people living with HIV (PLHIV). The test can rapidly detect TB in severely ill PLHIV and can identify PLHIV most at-risk of death, leading to mortality reductions. However, its uptake in countries with high burdens of TB and HIV has been slow. To assess the current use landscape and identify barriers to the adoption of Alere-LAM, we conducted a questionnaire-based study in 31 high TB and HIV/AIDS burden countries. Methods: Between November 2018 and December 2019, we collected responses to a semi-structured questionnaire that had been emailed to staff and affiliates of National TB Programs or HIV/AIDS Programs, Ministries of Health, and TB or HIV institutes of 31 high TB/HIV burden countries. Questions concerned country policies, adoption, and current use of Alere-LAM testing, as well as testing algorithms and barriers preventing Alere-LAM uptake. Results: We received questionnaire responses from 24 out of 31 (77%) high TB/HIV burden countries. Of these 24 countries, 11 (46%) had adopted Alere-LAM policies, with only five (21%) countries currently using Alere-LAM testing. Testing algorithms were generally aligned with WHO recommendations. Fifteen countries (63%) said they were planning to implement Alere-LAM testing in the near future. The most commonly cited constraint to adoption and implementation was budget limitations. Additional barriers to Alere-LAM implementation included lack of country-specific data and piloting, administrative hurdles such as regulatory agency approval, lack of coordination between National TB and HIV programs, and small perceived patient population. Conclusion: Responses to our questionnaire demonstrate the persistent gap between country-level policy and real-world use of Alere-LAM, as well as specific barriers that must be addressed to scale-up testing in PLHIV.

SUBMITTER: Singhroy DN

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7059561 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Adoption and uptake of the lateral flow urine LAM test in countries with high tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS burden: current landscape and barriers.

Singhroy Diane N DN MacLean Emily E Kohli Mikashmi M Lessem Erica E Branigan David D England Kathleen K Suleiman Khairunisa K Drain Paul K PK Ruhwald Morten M Schumacher Samuel S Denkinger Claudia M CM Waning Brenda B Van Gemert Wayne W Pai Madhukar M

Gates open research 20200407

<b>Background:</b> Since 2015, the World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended a commercially available lateral-flow urine LAM test (Alere-LAM) to assist in the diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB) in severely ill people living with HIV (PLHIV). The test can rapidly detect TB in severely ill PLHIV and can identify PLHIV most at-risk of death, leading to mortality reductions. However, its uptake in countries with high burdens of TB and HIV has been slow. To assess the current use landscape and iden ...[more]

PMID: 32185366

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Project description:BackgroundTuberculosis (TB) is a serious co-morbidity among children with severe acute malnutrition (SAM) and TB diagnosis remains particularly challenging in the very young. We explored whether, in a low HIV-prevalence setting, the detection of mycobacterial lipoarabinomannan (LAM) antigen in urine may assist TB diagnosis in SAM children, a pediatric population currently not included in LAM-testing recommendations. To that end, we assessed LAM test-positivity among SAM children with and without signs or symptoms of TB.MethodsA cross-sectional assessment (February 2016-August 2017) included children <5 years with SAM from an Intensive-Therapeutic-Feeding-Centre in Madaoua, Niger. Group 1: children with signs or symptoms suggestive of TB. Group 2: children without any sign or symptom of TB. Urine-specimens were subjected to DetermineTM TB-LAM lateral-flow-test (using a 4-grade intensity scale for positives). LAM-results were used for study purposes and not for patient management. Programmatic TB-diagnosis was primarily based on patients' clinical symptoms and TB contact history with no systematic access to X-ray or microbiological reference testing.Results102 (Group 1) and 100 children (Group 2) were included (median age 18 months, 59.4% male, 1.0% HIV-positive). In Group 1, 22 (21.6%) children were started on TB-treatment (probable TB) and none of the children in Group 2. LAM-positivity was 52.0% (53/102) and 37.0% (37/100) in Group 1 and 2, respectively. Low-intensity (Grade 1) LAM test-positivity was similarly high in both Groups (37.3% and 36.0%, respectively), while Grade 2 or 3-positives were mainly detected in Group 1 (Group 1: 14.7%, Group 2: 1.0%, p<0.001). When considering only Grades >1 as positive, LAM-testing detected 22.7% (95%CI: 7.8, 45.4) among probable TB cases, while 99% (95%CI: 94.6, 99.9) of unlikely TB cases (Group 2) tested negative.ConclusionThese findings suggest the potential utility of LAM urine testing in HIV-negative children with SAM. Determine LAM-positivity with Grades >1 may identify HIV-negative SAM children that are eligible for rapid TB-treatment initiation, though low-intensity (Grade 1) LAM-positive results may not be helpful in this way. Further studies in this specific pediatric population are warranted, including evaluations of new generation LAM tests.

Project description:BackgroundIn 2007, AMSTAR (A MeaSurement Tool to Assess systematic Reviews), a critical appraisal tool for systematic reviews (SRs), was published, and it has since become one of the most widely used instruments for SR appraisal. In September 2017, AMSTAR 2 was published as an updated version of the tool. This mixed-methods study aimed to analyze the extent of the AMSTAR 2 uptake and explore potential barriers to its uptake.MethodsWe analyzed the frequency of AMSTAR or AMSTAR 2 use in articles published in 2018, 2019 and 2020. We surveyed authors who have used AMSTAR but not AMSTAR 2 in the analyzed time frame to identify their reasons and barriers. The inclusion criterion for those authors was that the month of manuscript submission was after September 2017, i.e. after AMSTAR 2 was published.ResultsWe included 871 studies. The majority (N = 451; 52%) used AMSTAR 2, while 44% (N = 382) used AMSTAR, 4% (N = 31) used R-AMSTAR and others used a combination of tools. In 2018, 81% of the analyzed studies used AMSTAR, while 16% used AMSTAR 2. In 2019, 52% used AMSTAR, while 44% used AMSTAR 2. Among articles published in 2020, 28% used AMSTAR, while AMSTAR 2 was used by 69%. An author survey indicated that the authors did not use AMSTAR 2 mostly because they were not aware of it, their protocol was already established, or data collection completed at the time when the new tool was published. Barriers towards AMSTAR 2 use were lack of quantitative assessment, insufficient awareness, length, difficulties with a specific item.ConclusionIn articles published in 2018-2020, that were submitted to a journal after AMSTAR 2 tool was published, almost half of the authors (44%) still used AMSTAR, the old version of the tool. However, the use of AMSTAR has been declining in each subsequent year. Our survey indicated that editors and peer-reviewers did not ask the authors to use the new version of the tool. Few barriers towards using AMSTAR 2 were identified, and thus it is anticipated that the use of the old version of AMSTAR will continue to decline.

Project description:BACKGROUND:The 16 Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) countries remain the epicentre of the HIV/AIDS epidemic with the largest number of people living with HIV/AIDS. Anti-retroviral treatment (ART) has improved survival and prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV, but the disease remains a serious cause of mortality. We conducted a descriptive epidemiological analysis of HIV/AIDS burden for the 16 SADC countries using secondary data from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries and Risk Factor (GBD) Study. METHODS:The GBD study is a systematic, scientific effort by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) to quantify the comparative magnitude of health loss due to diseases, injuries, and risk factors by age, sex, and geographies for specific points in time. We analyzed the following outcomes: mortality, years of life lost (YLLs), years lived with disability (YLDs), and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) due to HIV/AIDS for SADC. Input data for GBD was extracted from censuses, household surveys, civil registration and vital statistics, disease registries, health service utilisation, disease notifications, and other sources. Country- and cause-specific HIV/AIDS-related death rates were calculated using the Cause of Death Ensemble model (CODEm) and spatiotemporal Gaussian process regression (ST-GPR). Deaths were multiplied by standard life expectancy at each age-group to calculate YLLs. Cause-specific mortality was estimated using a Bayesian meta-regression modelling tool, DisMod-MR. Prevalence estimates were multiplied by disability weights for mutually exclusive sequelae of diseases to calculate YLDs. Crude and age-adjusted rates per 100,000 population and changes between 1990 and 2017 were determined for each country. RESULTS:In 2017, HIV/AIDS caused 336,175 deaths overall in SADC countries, and more than 20 million DALYs. This corresponds to a 3-fold increase from 113,631 deaths (6,915,170 DALYs) in 1990. The five leading countries with the proportion of deaths attributable to HIV/AIDS in 2017 were Botswana at the top with 28.7% (95% UI; 23.7-35.2), followed by South Africa 28.5% (25.8-31.6), Lesotho, 25.1% (21.2-30.4), eSwatini 24.8% (21.3-28.6), and Mozambique 24.2% (20.6-29.3). The five countries had relative attributable deaths that were at least 14 times greater than the global burden of 1.7% (1.6-1.8). Similar patterns were observed with YLDs, YLLs, and DALYs. Comoros, Seychelles and Mauritius were on the lower end, with attributable proportions less than 1%, below the global proportion. CONCLUSIONS:Great progress in reducing HIV/AIDS burden has been achieved since the peak but more needs to be done. The post-2005 decline is attributed to PMTCT of HIV, resources provided through the US President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), and behavioural change. The five countries with the highest burden of HIV/AIDS as measured by proportion of death attributed to HIV/AIDS and age-standardized mortaility rate were Botswana, South Africa, Lesotho, eSwatini, and Mozambique. SADC countries should cooperate, work with donors, and embrace the UN Fast-Track approach, which calls for frontloading investment from domestic or other sources to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS. Robust tracking, testing, and early treatment are required, as well as refinement of individual treatment strategies for transient individuals in the region.

Project description:Vaccine coverage for children is an important indicator of the performance of national health and immunization systems. Most of the existing literature has targeted mothers' low educational level, living in underserved districts and/or remote rural areas and economic poverty that are correlated with low immunization coverage but the supply- and demand-side constraints to immunization in low- and middle- income countries (LMICs) are not well understood. The reliability of claimed administrative immunization coverage in these contexts is questionable. To address these barriers within the present Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI), the difficulties related to inadequate vaccination uptake must be addressed in more depth. Building on already produced literature, this study aims to determine the extent of immunization coverage among children in LMICs, as well as to fill in the gaps in awareness about system-level obstacles that currently hinder the effective delivery and uptake of immunization services through EPI. By two reviewers, a literature search using PubMed and Google Scholar along with targeted grey literature was conducted on the 2nd of June 2021 by following PRISMA guidelines. The search techniques for electronic databases used both Medical Subject Headings (Mesh) and free-text words were tailored to each database's specific needs using a controlled vocabulary that was limited to the English language from 2000 and 2020. Of the 689 records, eleven articles were included in this review meeting the inclusion criteria. In total, five articles related to vaccination coverage, four studies on components of the routine immunization system, one article on the implementation of new and under-utilized vaccines and one were on vaccines financing. We evaluated the quality of the included studies and extracted into tables created by one investigator and double-checked by another. Review findings suggest that specific strategies to reduce inequality may be required. Vaccine procurement and pricing strategies, as well as vaccine customization to meet the needs of LMICs, are all critical components in strengthening immunization systems. Our findings could be used to establish practical strategies for countries and development partners to address coverage gaps and improve vaccination system effectiveness.Supplementary informationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40267-021-00890-7.

Project description:ObjectivesLow-and-middle-income countries (LMICs) bear a disproportionate burden of cervical cancer mortality. We aimed to identify what is currently known about barriers to cervical cancer screening among women in LMICs and propose remedial actions.DesignThis was a systematic review using Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) terms in Google Scholar, PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science databases. We also contacted medical associations and universities for grey literature and checked reference lists of eligible articles for relevant literature published in English between 2010 and 2020. We summarized the findings using a descriptive narrative based on themes identified as levels of the social ecological model.SettingWe included studies conducted in LMICs published in English between 2010 and 2020.ParticipantsWe included studies that reported on barriers to cervical cancer screening among women 15 years and older, eligible for cervical cancer screening.ResultsSeventy-nine articles met the inclusion criteria. We identified individual, cultural/traditional and religious, societal, health system, and structural barriers to screening. Lack of knowledge and awareness of cervical cancer in general and of screening were the most frequent individual level barriers. Cultural/traditional and religious barriers included prohibition of screening and unsupportive partners and families, while social barriers were largely driven by community misconceptions. Health system barriers included policy and programmatic factors, and structural barriers were related to geography, education and cost. Underlying reasons for these barriers included limited information about cervical cancer and screening as a preventive strategy, poorly resourced health systems that lacked policies or implemented them poorly, generalised limited access to health services, and gender norms that deprioritize the health needs of women.ConclusionA wide range of barriers to screening were identified across most LMICs. Urgent implementation of clear policies supported by health system capacity for implementation, community wide advocacy and information dissemination, strengthening of policies that support women's health and gender equality, and targeted further research are needed to effectively address the inequitable burden of cervical cancer in LMICs.

Dataset Information

Adoption and uptake of the lateral flow urine LAM test in countries with high tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS burden: current landscape and barriers.

Publications

Adoption and uptake of the lateral flow urine LAM test in countries with high tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS burden: current landscape and barriers.

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