MHF TOP PICKS FOR May
Every month, we at the Mueller Health Foundation like to showcase interesting news and updates in the field of tuberculosis. Below are our top 3 picks for May:
- Monitoring Medication Adherence for TB Treatment in Africa using AI
A new pilot study led by researchers at the University of Georgia has focused on determining the technical feasibility of applying Artificial Intelligence (AI) to analyze a raw dataset of videos from TB patients in Africa taking medications. This study was conducted by a multidisciplinary team led by a public health physician specializing in TB medication adherence and three computer scientists specializing in deep learning models. In this study, researchers used a secondary dataset containing 861 self-recorded medication intake videos of 50 TB patients. Researchers tested several deep learning models and with one model called 3D ResNet, they observed a diagnostic accuracy ranging from 72.5% to 77.3%, which is comparable to or higher than the expert clinical accuracy of doctors. To learn more, you can access the full article at: https://www.news-medical.net/news/20220411/Monitoring-medication- adherence-for-TB-treatment-in-Africa-using-AI.aspx
- The Relationship Between Previous Pulmonary Tuberculosis and Risk of Lung Cancer in the Future
Researchers at the Nantong University in China have conducted research to support the views that tuberculosis is an important risk factor for lung cancer occurrence. Through this research, it is becoming clearer that Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb) in TB patients meticulously schemes multiple mechanisms to induce tumor formation and is indispensable to participate in the occurrence of lung cancer. In addition, some additional factors such as age, sex and smoking, accelerate the development of lung cancer after M.tb infection. The clarification of these insights is fostering new diagnoses and therapeutic approaches to prevent the development of lung cancer in TB patients. A key take-away is that clinicians should use relevant assessments on whether tuberculosis patients are likely to develop lung cancer, provide personalized medicine for improved disease management, and begin to shift focus to early intervention measures. To learn more, you can read the full article here:
https://infectagentscancer.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13027-022- 00434-2
DID YOU KNOW?
In recent news, Washington State in the US is currently facing its largest TB outbreak in decades. Of the 70 confirmed tuberculosis cases in Washington State over the last four months, 17 of them have been linked to Washington state prisons. In light of this finding, we wanted to highlight a few trends in relation to TB and incarceration facilities in the US over the the last three decades:
- In 2020, approximately 3% of TB cases (179 TB cases) reported in the United States occurred among people who were current residents of correctional facilities and were 15 years of age or older.
- Between 1993 and 2017, on average, approximately 49% of all TB cases reported among residents of correctional facilities were from local jails. About 8% resided in federal prisons, 28% resided in state prisons, about 12% resided in other facilities (e.g. ICE), less than 1% were in facilities housing juveniles and 2% had missing data on type of facility.
- From 2010 to 2017, the largest number of cases reported among residents in a correctional facility at the time of TB diagnosis were among Hispanics (1710), followed by Blacks (729), Whites (326), Asians (155) and persons of other race/ethnicities or unknown race (57). Among correctional facility residents with TB, the highest proportion of non-U.S.-born persons were among Asians (94%) followed by Hispanics (83%).
- From 1993 to 2017, over 90% of TB cases among persons reported to reside in a correctional facility were male. In the same timespan, the number of males ranged from 1,011 in 1994 to 249 in 2017.
- Since 1993, most TB cases among persons in correctional facilities completed treatment for TB (71%) either during their stay in the correctional facility or after they were released. Most TB patients completed treatment within a year, but for some, treatment can take years.
- Between 2010 and 2017, for TB cases among persons in correctional facilities, 71% reported not having a history of excess alcohol use in the year prior to their TB diagnosis in comparison to 88% among persons not in a correctional facility.