'Early testing best' for drug-resistant TB

A study in Peru has demonstrated the importance of early drug susceptibility tests to diagnose multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) and the necessity of environmental control measures to prevent airborne TB transmission.

The investigation, carried out in a hospital in Lima, was published in PLoS Medicine last week (16 September).

Researchers found that just ten HIV/TB patients out of 97 were responsible for virtually all the cases of TB contracted by guinea pigs used in their research experiment. Seven of these ten patients had drug-resistant TB that had been inadequately treated.

"This research shows it is important to diagnose multidrug-resistant TB quickly, rather than to wait for these patients to fail normal treatment, because while such patients are inadequately treated, they may be highly infectious, and spread the disease," says Roderick Escombe, lead author of the study and a medical doctor in the department of infectious diseases and immunity at Imperial College London, United Kingdom.

"This shows clearly that a contaminated environment without proper ventilation is a powerful transmitter of the disease and that the smaller and less ventilated it is, the higher the chance of transmission," adds Ñavincopa.

"Effective TB infection control measures, fresh air and ventilated areas are essential in hospitals, but also in other health settings such as antiretroviral therapy rooms and rural medical centers, to prevent airborne dissemination of the bacteria," he adds.

[AIDSPortal summary]

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Note: To view the study 'The Infectiousness of Tuberculosis Patients Coinfected with HIV', PLoS Med 5(9): e188. (September 16, 2008), paste the following link into your web browser: http://www.aidsportal.org/Article_Details.aspx?ID=8522