In this modeling study, Allison Portnoy and colleagues investigate the potential impact of reduced international donor funding on the household economic burden of tuberculosis in low- and middle-income countries π§ͺ #MedSky #TB
plos.io/4ryyBFX
1/π’ In our new publication, we estimate that in 2022, 134 million people worldwide had a recent Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) infection and were at high risk of progressing to TB disease. Read the full paper in PLOS Medicine (tinyurl.com/mtbinfection). #TBSky
Very please to share the results of the SaDAPT Trial.
In Malawi and Lesotho, same-day initiation for ART for #HIV in people with #TB symptoms was non-inferior to ART initiation after TB investigations, and with no safety concerns.
authors.elsevier.com/c/1mb~68MsVo...
@uofgshw.bsky.social
One of the pleasures of my academic job is my role as an Academic Editor for PLOS Medicine.
Next up in our 'meet the editors' is Academic Editor Peter MacPherson (@petermacp.bsky.social), Professor of Global Public Health and Head of Public Health at the University of Glasgow. Peter also specializes in infectious disease epidemiology, tuberculosis, HIV, and evidence synthesis π§ͺ #MedSky
I have been messing around with biscale plots here⦠but not sure whether they work on not. Could work with a hex plot too I guess
We are recruiting! We are looking for statistical methodologists at Research Fellow / Senior Research Fellow level for our new Centre of Research Excellence (CoRE) in Clinical Trial Innovation. If you know of anyone who might be interested, please share!
www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...
I biked to work today in the snow in Glasgow. It was delightful!
Our Editorβs Choice commentary in @cidjournal.bsky.social finds that reported TB symptoms are an inadequate classifier of disease state, as they are heavily influenced by context and substantial interviewer variability, and may have alternative causes.
Read more hereππ»
doi.org/10.1093/cid/...
π¨Fully-funded PhD opportunity!π¨
Interested in researching how to improve risk prediction for people with #tuberculosis #TB and #multimorbidity?
Joint project between @uofgshw.bsky.social π΄σ §σ ’σ ³σ £σ ΄σ Ώ and @ki.se πΈπͺ, funded by UK MRC.
Details hereβ¬οΈ
www.gla.ac.uk/postgraduate...
Latent #tuberculosis (TB) infection screening programmes for migrants from high to low TB incidence countries can be effective and cost-saving in a variety of settings.
New study by @petermacp.bsky.social @alice-e-taylor.bsky.social @publichealthscot.bsky.social
journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...
Ahead of The Union World Conference on Lung Health, Katherine Horton provides @the-independent.com with insights into the devastating impact of the funding cuts on global health, particularly tuberculosis.
Be sure to read about the threat of UK aid cuts: www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/poli...
Every year, ~500,000 people develop TB in Nigeria β but 30% go undiagnosed.
Dr. Chukwuebuka Ugwuβs DESTINE study shows how gender-tailored, locally co-created TB interventions can close this gap.
π₯ Watch here: youtu.be/JOFzgHOwFFk?...
@zanklic.bsky.social
Was very fortunate to see Counting Crows play last night⦠only 27 years since I last saw them play in Scotland.
With declining donor aid, Ministries of Health in high-tuberculosis burden nations need to be more ambitious, but will have to do more with less
Embedding tuberculosis within the PHC and UHC agenda is an obvious way to do it
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Understanding patterns of #TB exposure and transmission is needed for targeted prevention strategies. In our latest pre-print, @petedodd24.bsky.social and I estimated the proportion of TB exposure to and transmission from sex and age groups for 177 countries.
bit.ly/4nbV492
The recognition of asymptomatic #TB is both fascinating and worrying. The recognition of symptoms is the gate-keeper to so much of our public health response. Seems like another important argument for broader community access to diagnostic services!
New preprint (NOT PEER-REVIEWED)
Community screening for #TB can reduce incidence. But we donβt know how best to target.
Targeting based on neighbourhood ARTI from convenience samples can substantially improve health and cost-effectiveness vs untargeted screening.
www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...
β‘οΈNew publicationβ‘οΈ
We investigated the risk and determinants of mortality in people notified with Invasive Group A Streptococcal disease in Scotland between Jan 2017 and Dec 2024.
doi.org/10.1016/j.ij...
@uofgshw.bsky.social
β‘οΈNew publicationβ‘οΈ
WHO clinical staging is not sufficiently accurate to identify advanced #HIV.
CD4 testing remains essential to reduce morbidity and mortality.
doi.org/10.1111/hiv....
@uofgshw.bsky.social
@joejarvis.bsky.social
Our systematic review of rural/urban differences in #TB prevalence shows evidence of rapidly urbanising epidemics in many settings, with differences across countries and regions.
Link to preprint below β¬οΈ
A great team project with @kchorton.bsky.social (on Bluesky) and colleagues not on Bluesky from @uofgshw.bsky.social, @tb-lshtm.bsky.social and @hsph.harvard.edu
We found that #TB epidemics are rapidly urbanising, with profound implications for care and prevention programmes.
There are big differences between countries and global regions in the timing of urbanisation of TB epidemics, likely driven by demographic changes.
A plot, facetted by country, showing the percentage of TB that is urban and rural between 2000-2023
A forest plot, showing estimates of the urban to rural TB prevalence in 46 studies
Are there more people with #TB in cities or rural areas?
In a π¨newπ¨ preprint (NOT PEER REVIEWED) we modelled urban-rural TB trends from 2000-2023 in 26 countries with 4.6 billion people.
www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...
Men are more than twice as likely as women to have prevalent #TB.
We did updated meta-analysis including over 4million people in 99 surveys.
Despite increasing focus on gender equitable TB responses, this gap has widened since we last assessed these data over a decade ago.
6/ @petermacp.bsky.social and I seem to be the only coauthors on Bluesky, but this work comes from a great team across @hsph.harvard.edu @uofglasgow.bsky.social @tb-lshtm.bsky.social @lshtm-tbmod.bsky.social
5/ These findings show that, despite calls for gender responsive TB prevention and care, disparities have increased over the past three decades. Effective strategies to reduce menβs risk of TB and to engage men in TB prevention and care remain essential to end TB.
NOT PEER REVIEWED
4/ The stability of pooled estimates doesn't mean sex ratios have remained consistent. We found evidence that male-to-female ratios likely increased 1.6% (95% CrI -1.0-6.2%) annually over the period 1994β2021, with the greatest increase in the Western Pacific region.
NOT PEER REVIEWED
3/ We fitted multi-level Bayesian regression models to estimate a pooled male-to-female prevalence ratio of 2.21 (95% CrI 1.94-2.50) for bacteriologically-confirmed TB.
That's the same point estimate as our previous review, but the two studies used different analytical methods.
NOT PEER REVIEWED
2/ We updated our systematic review and identified 99 TB prevalence surveys reporting sex-disaggregated results (with >4 million participants) conducted between 1993 and 2024 in 33 low- or middle-income countries.
NOT PEER REVIEWED
