Summaries of Must-Read Clinical Literature, Guidelines, and FDA Actions

Identifying Mycobacterium Tuberculosis Strains

BMC Infect Dis; ePub 2016 Oct 21; Teeter, et al

Publish date:: November 2, 2016

A practical method to systematically identify tuberculosis (TB) epidemiologic links that can be integrated into routine TB control and prevention programs in public health settings were validated in a study of 44 clusters from 4 heterogeneous US jurisdictions. The study population included 401 Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) culture-positive patients from Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, and Houston, TX, with Mtb isolates genotyped by CDC’s National TB Genotyping Service (NTGS) from 2006 to October 2010. Researchers found:

44 clusters were randomly selected from the 4 study sites (401 patients).
Epidemiologic links were identified for 47% (189/401) of study patients in a total of 201 linked patient-pairs.
Numbers of linked patients identified in each cluster investigations steps: Step 1 (26.2%), Step 2 (3.9%), Step 3 (14.6%), and Step 4 (30%).
Among with 189 linked patients, 28 (14.8%) were not identified in previous contact investigation.
No epidemiologic links were identified in 30% of clusters.

Citation:

Teeter LD, Vempaty P, Nguyen DTM, et al. Validation of genotype cluster investigations for Mycobacterium tuberculosis: Application results for 44 clusters from four heterogeneous United States jurisdictions. [Published online ahead of print October 21, 2016]. BMC Infect Dis. doi:10.1186/s12879-016-1937-9.

This Week's Must Reads

Repeat LTBI Testing Best in Patients Taking Biologics With New Risk Factors,

Perioperative Antirheumatic Drug Use Does Not Impact Postsurgery Infection Rate in RA Patients,

A triple-antibiotic cure for Crohn’s disease?,

Health Care: More Uninsured As Insurance Costs Grow Faster,

CDC finds that efforts to reduce new HIV infections have stalled,

Must Reads in Emerging Infections

Valacyclovir safely cut vertical CMV transmission,

Impact of climate change on mortality underlined by global study,

Delaying antibiotics in elderly with UTI linked to higher sepsis, death rates,

Meningococcal Disease Outbreaks in the US, Clin Infect Dis; ePub 2018 Jun 30; Mbaeyi, et al

Severe Respiratory Illness Linked to Rhinovirus, Clin Infect Dis; ePub 2017 Nov 23; Prill, et al