Tuberculosis elimination and the challenge of latent tuberculosis

Matteelli, Alberto; Sulis, Giorgia; Capone, Susanna; D’Ambrosio, Lia; Migliori, Giovanni Battista; Getahun, Haileyesus

doi:10.1016/j.lpm.2017.01.015

Cited by 53 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…In a country like Italy, where the presence of TB is low, screening programs for healthcare students may be useful in this era of international exchange for early identification and treatment of LTBI [31][32][33].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Latent Tuberculosis Infection among Healthcare Students and Postgraduates in a Mediterranean Italian Area: What Correlation with Work Exposure?

Verso

Serra

Ciccarello

et al. 2019

IJERPH

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Background: Tuberculosis screening is part of the standard protocol for evaluating the risk of infection in healthcare workers. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) among students attending various healthcare profession degree courses and postgraduate medical courses at the School of Medicine of the University of Palermo, Italy, and assess the possible professional origin of infection. Methods: In total, 2946 students (2082 undergraduates and 864 postgraduates) took part in a screening program for LTBI between January 2014 to April 2019 using the tuberculin skin test (TST). Students with a positive TST result underwent a Quantiferon-TB test (QFT). Results: Among the 2082 undergraduates, 23 (1.1%) had a positive TST; the result was confirmed with QFT for 13 (0.62%) of them. Among the 864 postgraduate students, 24 (2.78%) had a positive TST and only 18 (2.08%) showed a positive QTF. Latent tuberculosis infections were significantly more frequent among postgraduates than undergraduates (2.08% > 0.62%, p < 0.0001). There was a higher number of subjects previously vaccinated for TB (18.87% > 0.24%, p < 0.0001), and of vaccinated subjects found positive for TST and QTF (66.67% > 7.69%, p = 0.001) in the postgraduate group. Conclusion: Latent TB is relatively low among medical school students in our geographic area. Nevertheless, this infectious disease must be regarded as a re-emerging biohazard for which preventive strategies are required to limit the risk of infection, especially among exposed workers.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Latent Tuberculosis Infection among Healthcare Students and Postgraduates in a Mediterranean Italian Area: What Correlation with Work Exposure?

Verso

Serra

Ciccarello

et al. 2019

IJERPH

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“…Childhood and adolescent TB needs to be prioritised by all stakeholders to improve care for children with TB, with the final aim of eliminating TB during our generation. Likewise, regional initiatives are essential in fostering more efforts towards TB elimination [24][25][26][27][28].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prioritising children and adolescents in the tuberculosis response of the WHO European Region

et al. 2019

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In 2017, in recognition of the challenges faced by Member States in managing childhood and adolescent tuberculosis (TB) at a country level, the WHO Regional Office for Europe held a Regional Consultation. In total, 35 countries participated in the consultations representing both high-and lowincidence Member States. Here, we provide an overview of the existing World Health Organization (WHO) documents and guidelines on childhood and adolescent TB and describe the outcomes of this regional meeting. National childhood and adolescent TB guidelines are available in 25% of Member States, while 33% reported that no such guidelines are at hand. In the majority of countries (83%), childhood and adolescent TB is part of the National Strategic Plan. The most pressing challenges in managing paediatric TB comprise the lack of adequate drug formulations, the difficult diagnosis, and treatment of presumed latent TB infection. Investments into childhood and adolescent TB need to be further advocated to achieve the End TB goals set by WHO to eliminate TB by 2030.

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“…In any case, even with low incidence of infection in this geographic area, it is indispensable to work for limiting the evolution from latent to active TBC in all population, including exposed workers, encouraging the adoption of recommended therapeutic strategies that, unfortunately, are not suggested and applied uniformly by all the specialists and in all the geographical areas of our country [14][15][16][17]. In addition, research into new active prophylactic means should be stepped up, promoting the production of new vaccines more efficient than those currently in use for immunizing the general population and all at high risk of exposure workers [18].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Screening for Latent Tuberculosis Infection among Students of Healthcare Professions and Postgraduates of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Palermo

Verso¹,

Picciotto²,

N³

et al. 2017

J Bacteriol Parasitol

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Introduction and objective: Italy is a country with a low incidence of tuberculosis and in the last fifty years the annual number of TB cases decreased from 12,247 to 4,418, showing a reduction of approximately 64% in the number of cases and 71% in incidence. Despite of this encouraging trend, in the last years the epidemiology of tuberculosis changed and today it is a re-emerging infectious. The aim of this study is to measure the prevalence of positivity to tuberculosis infection (latent TB) in students, without any obvious manifestation of disease, attending degree courses of the health care professions and postgraduate medical courses

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Tuberculosis elimination and the challenge of latent tuberculosis

Cited by 53 publications

References 61 publications

Latent Tuberculosis Infection among Healthcare Students and Postgraduates in a Mediterranean Italian Area: What Correlation with Work Exposure?

Latent Tuberculosis Infection among Healthcare Students and Postgraduates in a Mediterranean Italian Area: What Correlation with Work Exposure?

Prioritising children and adolescents in the tuberculosis response of the WHO European Region

Screening for Latent Tuberculosis Infection among Students of Healthcare Professions and Postgraduates of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Palermo

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