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Objectives: Several respirable hazards, including smoking and indoor air pollution from biomass, were suggested to increase the risk of tuberculosis. Few studies have been conducted on ambient air pollution and tuberculosis. We investigated the association between exposure to ambient air pollution and incidence of active tuberculosis.Methods: We conducted a cohort study using 106,678 participants of a community-based screening service in Taiwan, 2005-2012. We estimated individual exposure to air pollution using data from the nearest air quality monitoring station and the road intensity within a 500 m buffer zone. The incidence of tuberculosis was ascertained from the national tuberculosis registry.Results: After a median follow-up of 6.7 years, 418 cases of tuberculosis occurred. Exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) was associated with increased risk of active tuberculosis (adjusted HR: 1.39/10 μg/m3 (95% CI 0.95 to 2.03)). In addition, traffic-related air pollution including nitrogen dioxide (adjusted HR: 1.33/10 ppb; 95% CI 1.04 to 1.70), nitrogen oxides (adjusted HR: 1.21/10 ppb; 95% CI 1.04 to 1.41) and carbon monoxide (adjusted HR: 1.89/ppm; 95% CI 0.78 to 4.58) was associated with tuberculosis risk. There was a non-significant trend between the length of major roads in the neighbourhood and culture-confirmed tuberculosis (adjusted HR: 1.04/km; 95% CI 0.995 to 1.09).Conclusions: Our study revealed a possible link between ambient air pollution and risk of active tuberculosis. Since people from developing countries continue to be exposed to high levels of ambient air pollution and to experience high rates of tuberculosis, the impact of worsening air pollution on global tuberculosis control warrants further investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: It was reported that 35.5% of tuberculosis (TB) cases reported in 2003 in Taipei City had no recorded pre- treatment body weight and that among those who had, inconsistent dosing of anti-TB drugs was frequent. Taiwan Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have taken actions to strengthen dosing of anti-TB drugs among general practitioners. Prescribing practices of anti-TB drugs in Taipei City in 2007-2010 were investigated to assess whether interventions on dosing were effective. Methodology/Principal Findings: Lists of all notified culture positive TB cases in 2007-2010 were obtained from National TB Registry at Taiwan CDC. A medical audit of TB case management files was performed to collect pretreatment body weight and regimens prescribed at commencement of treatment. Dosages prescribed were compared with dosages recommended. The proportion of patients with recorded pre-treatment body weight was 64.5% in 2003, which increased to 96.5% in 2007-2010 (p<0.001). The proportion of patients treated with consistent dosing of a 3-drug fixed-dose combination (FDC) increased from 73.9% in 2003 to 87.7% in 2007-2010 (p<0.001), and that for 2- drug FDC from 76.0% to 86.1% (p = 0.024), for rifampicin (RMP) from 62.8% to 85.5% (p<0.001), and for isoniazid from 87.8% to 95.3% (p<0.001). In 2007-2010, among 2917 patients treated with either FDCs or RMP in single-drug preparation, the dosage of RMP was adequate (8-12 mg/kg) in 2571(88.1%) patients, too high in 282(9.7%), too low in 64(2.2%). In multinomial logistic regression models, factors significantly associated with adequate dosage of RMP were body weight and preparations of RMP. Patients weighting ,40kg (relative risk ratio (rrr) 6010.5, 95% CI 781.1-46249.7) and patients weighting 40-49 kg (rrr 1495.3, 95% CI 200.6-11144.6) were more likely to receive higher-than-recommended dose of RMP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]