Health care visits as a risk factor for tuberculosis in Taiwan

Pan, S.C., Chen, C.C., Chiang, Y.T., Chang, H.Y., Fang, C.T. and Lin, H.H., 2016. Health care visits as a risk factor for tuberculosis in Taiwan: a population-based case–control study. American journal of public health, 106(7), pp.1323-1328.
  • TB transmission risk is heightened by inadequate ventilation and environmental cleaning, allowing TB droplets to persist in health care settings.
  • Crowded and poorly ventilated outpatient areas significantly increase transmission risks, particularly from unsuspected and untreated TB cases.
  • A higher frequency of health care visits is directly correlated with increased TB incidence rates; visiting a facility with an untreated TB patient on the same day notably raises the risk.
  • Despite adjusting for medical comorbidities, the association between frequent health care visits and increased TB risk remains statistically significant.
  • TB patients frequently visit services like family medicine, internal medicine, and general practice during potentially infectious periods, necessitating focused infection control measures in these areas.
  • Enhance infection control in internal medicine, family medicine, and pulmonology, improve early TB detection and treatment, and implement targeted interventions such as cough officer screening, germicidal ultraviolet systems in upper rooms, and upgraded ventilation in outpatient service areas.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nutritional status in patients with TB and DM

Patel, D.G., Baral, T., Kurian, S.J., Malakapogu, P., Saravu, K. and Miraj, S.S., 2024. Nutritional status in patients with tuberculosis and diabetes mellitus: A comparative observational study.  Journal of Clinical Tuberculosis and Other Mycobacterial Diseases ,  35 , p.100428. Cardiovascular disease prevalence was highest in the DM group, followed by the TB-DM group. Anaemia was more prevalent in the TB-DM group. Smoking and alcohol use were most common in the TB group, followed by the TB-DM group. See also: TB and kidney function impairment In the TB-DM group, HbA1c levels indicated poor diabetic control (10.47%), higher than in the DM group (8.17%). FBS was also above normal in the TB-DM group, followed by the DM group. Although there were no significant differences in nutritional parameters like albumin, globulin, and total proteins, vitamin B12 levels were highest in the TB-DM group. Notably, 95.83% of patients in the TB-DM group had HbA1c > 6.5, with similarly high FBS and RB
Read more

Scientific advances and the end of tuberculosis

Reid, M., Agbassi, Y.J.P., Arinaminpathy, N., Bercasio, A., Bhargava, A., Bhargava, M., Bloom, A., Cattamanchi, A., Chaisson, R., Chin, D. and Churchyard, G., 2023. Scientific advances and the end of tuberculosis: a report from the Lancet Commission on Tuberculosis.  The Lancet ,  402 (10411), pp.1473-1498. Progress toward ending tuberculosis varies greatly across countries, with some achieving substantial improvements and others making minimal progress. Key challenges include frail health systems, underinvestment, and reliance on one-size-fits-all approaches. Insufficient case finding and diagnosis remain the most significant issues in high-burden countries, where only 38% of all tuberculosis cases were tested with WHO-recommended rapid molecular diagnostics in 2021. Two-thirds of tuberculosis deaths occurred in just eight countries, with over half of these in India, Indonesia, and Nigeria. Despite these challenges, some sub-Saharan African countries have seen improvements in tubercul
Read more

Impact of diabetes on tuberculosis and MDRTB susceptibility

There is a significant association between diabetes mellitus (DM) and multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB). TB patients without DM have a lower risk of developing MDR-TB compared to those with DM. Factors contributing to MDR-TB emergence in TB patients with DM include: Impaired immune function Altered microbial genomics Uncontrolled glucose levels, increasing susceptibility to MDR-TB Compromised phagocytic activity and reduced chemotactic response Increased oxidative species and microbe proliferation Altered drug disposition Higher likelihood of non-adherence to treatment TB patients with DM also experience higher treatment failure rates compared to those without DM. Most information on these associations is based on self-reported data or patient health records, which may introduce assessment errors Rehman Au, Khattak M, Mushtaq U, Latif M, Ahmad I, Rasool MF, Shakeel S, Hayat K, Hussain R, Alhazmi GA, Alshomrani AO, Alalawi MI, Alghamdi S, Imam MT, Almarzoky Abuhussain SS, Khayya
Read more