Half of TB Transmission Occurs Before Care Access, Study Suggests
The research was presented during the ongoing World Conference on Lung Health by the International Union Against TB in Paris, France.
Lilongwe, Malawi-Researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine have suggested that half of tuberculosis (TB) transmission occurs before individuals can access care under existing TB care policies, writes Meclina Chirwa.
This investigation indicates that one in two individuals with subclinical TB, who are likely infectious but are not aware of symptoms, will not progress to a disease severe enough to seek care.
The research was presented during the ongoing World Conference on Lung Health by the International Union Against TB in Paris, France.
Principal Investigator of the European Research Council, Professor Rein Houben, highlighted how the study reveals the weaknesses of current policies designed to eradicate the disease, where individuals need to report symptoms in a clinic before receiving care.
The study, which used a deterministic modelling framework based on 1,000 cohorts of 10,000 individuals, found that 93.5% of TB-infected individuals will not contribute to transmission within 10 years of MTB infection.
“The TB community has suspected for a while that current TB policies are not enough to drive TB down. Our work maximised the value of old and new data using mathematical models, and while still in development our results show just how much transmission is missed, and how many individuals with likely infectious TB will not receive care,” Houben said.
At the Union World Conference, tuberculosis experts also presented how active case finding could reduce the 52,000 TB cases in Cambodia, of which nearly 50% go undiagnosed.