Search

Science education and research have the potential to drive profound change in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) through encouraging innovation, attracting industry, and creating job opportunities. However, in LMICs, research capacity is often limited, and acquisition of funding and access to state-of-the-art technologies is challenging. The Alliance for Global Health and Science (the Alliance) was founded as a partnership between the University of California, Berkeley (USA) and Makerere University (Uganda), with the goal of strengthening Makerere University's capacity for bioscience research. The flagship program of the Alliance partnership is the MU/UCB Biosciences Training Program, an in-country, hands-on workshop model that trains a large number of students from Makerere University in infectious disease and molecular biology research. This approach nucleates training of larger and more diverse groups of students, development of mentoring and bi-directional research partnerships, and support of the local economy. Here, we describe the project, its conception, implementation, challenges, and outcomes of bioscience research workshops. We aim to provide a blueprint for workshop implementation, and create a valuable resource for bioscience research capacity strengthening in LMICs.

Not all patients produce sputum, yet most available TB tests use sputum. We investigated the utility of a novel RNA-based quantitative test, the tuberculosis molecular bacterial load assay (TB-MBLA), for the detection and quantification of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in stool. Stools from 100 adult individuals were treated with OMNIgene-sputum reagent and tested using Xpert MTB/RIF ultra (Xpert ultra), auramine O smear microscopy (smear), mycobacterial growth indicator tube (MGIT), and Lowenstein-Jensen (LJ) cultures. The remaining portions were frozen at -20°C and later tested by TB-MBLA. MGIT sputum culture was used as a TB confirmatory test and reference for stool tests. Sixty-one of 100 participants were already confirmed TB positive by MGIT sputum culture, 20 (33%) of whom were HIV coinfected. TB-MBLA detected M. tuberculosis in 57/100 stool samples, including 49 already confirmed for TB. The mean bacterial load measured by stool TB-MBLA was 5.67 ± 1.7 log10 estimated CFU (eCFU) per mL in HIV-coinfected participants, which was higher than the 4.83 ± 1.59 log10 eCFU per mL among the HIV-negative participants (P = 0.04). The sensitivities (95% confidence intervals [CI]) of stool assays were 80% (68 to 89) and 90% (79 to 98) for TB-MBLA and Xpert ultra, which were both higher than the 44% (32 to 58), 64% (51 to 76), and 62% (45 to 77) for smear, MGIT, and Lowenstein-Jensen (LJ) stool cultures, respectively. The specificity (95% CI) of stool assays was highest for smear, at 97% (87 to 100), followed by Xpert ultra at 91% (76 to 98), TB-MBLA at 79% (63 to 90), LJ at 80% (64 to 91), and MGIT at 62% (45 to 77). Twenty-six percent of MGIT and 21% of LJ stool cultures were indeterminate due to contamination. Detection and quantification of viable M. tuberculosis bacilli in stool raises its utility as an alternative to sputum as a sample type for TB diagnosis. IMPORTANCE This paper highlights the value of stool as a sample type for diagnosis of tuberculosis. While other s

Not all patients produce sputum, yet most available TB tests use sputum. We investigated the utility of a novel RNA-based quantitative test, the tuberculosis molecular bacterial load assay (TB-MBLA), for the detection and quantification of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in stool. Stools from 100 adult individuals were treated with OMNIgene-sputum reagent and tested using Xpert MTB/RIF ultra (Xpert ultra), auramine O smear microscopy (smear), mycobacterial growth indicator tube (MGIT), and Lowenstein-Jensen (LJ) cultures. The remaining portions were frozen at -20°C and later tested by TB-MBLA. MGIT sputum culture was used as a TB confirmatory test and reference for stool tests. Sixty-one of 100 participants were already confirmed TB positive by MGIT sputum culture, 20 (33%) of whom were HIV coinfected. TB-MBLA detected M. tuberculosis in 57/100 stool samples, including 49 already confirmed for TB. The mean bacterial load measured by stool TB-MBLA was 5.67 ± 1.7 log10 estimated CFU (eCFU) per mL in HIV-coinfected participants, which was higher than the 4.83 ± 1.59 log10 eCFU per mL among the HIV-negative participants (P = 0.04). The sensitivities (95% confidence intervals [CI]) of stool assays were 80% (68 to 89) and 90% (79 to 98) for TB-MBLA and Xpert ultra, which were both higher than the 44% (32 to 58), 64% (51 to 76), and 62% (45 to 77) for smear, MGIT, and Lowenstein-Jensen (LJ) stool cultures, respectively. The specificity (95% CI) of stool assays was highest for smear, at 97% (87 to 100), followed by Xpert ultra at 91% (76 to 98), TB-MBLA at 79% (63 to 90), LJ at 80% (64 to 91), and MGIT at 62% (45 to 77). Twenty-six percent of MGIT and 21% of LJ stool cultures were indeterminate due to contamination. Detection and quantification of viable M. tuberculosis bacilli in stool raises its utility as an alternative to sputum as a sample type for TB diagnosis. IMPORTANCE This paper highlights the value of stool as a sample type for diagnosis of tuberculosis. While other s

Science education and research have the potential to drive profound change in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) through encouraging innovation, attracting industry, and creating job opportunities. However, in LMICs, research capacity is often limited, and acquisition of funding and access to state-of-the-art technologies is challenging. The Alliance for Global Health and Science (the Alliance) was founded as a partnership between the University of California, Berkeley (USA) and Makerere University (Uganda), with the goal of strengthening Makerere University's capacity for bioscience research. The flagship program of the Alliance partnership is the MU/UCB Biosciences Training Program, an in-country, hands-on workshop model that trains a large number of students from Makerere University in infectious disease and molecular biology research. This approach nucleates training of larger and more diverse groups of students, development of mentoring and bi-directional research partnerships, and support of the local economy. Here, we describe the project, its conception, implementation, challenges, and outcomes of bioscience research workshops. We aim to provide a blueprint for workshop implementation, and create a valuable resource for bioscience research capacity strengthening in LMICs.

Jeremiah Seni,1 Inyasi Lawrence Akaro,2,3 Baraka Mkinze,2,3 Zengo Kashinje,1 Modest Benard,1 Gerald Mboowa,4 Dickson Aruhomukama,4 Ivan Sserwadda,4 Moses L Joloba,4 Stephen E Mshana,1 Benson R Kidenya5 1Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Weill Bugando School of Medicine, Catholic University of Health and Allied Sciences, Mwanza, Tanzania; 2Department of Surgery, Weill Bugando School of Medicine, Catholic University of Health and Allied Sciences, Mwanza, Tanzania; 3Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Bugando Medical Centre, Mwanza, Tanzania; 4Department of Immunology and Molecular Biology, Makerere University College of Health Sciences, Kampala, Uganda; 5Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Weill Bugando School of Medicine, Catholic University of Health and Allied Sciences, Mwanza, TanzaniaCorrespondence: Jeremiah SeniDepartment of Microbiology and Immunology, Weill Bugando School of Medicine, Catholic University of Health and Allied Sciences, P.O. Box 1464, Bugando, Mwanza, TanzaniaTel: +255 784 593000Email senijj80@gmail.comBackground: The dual burden of road traffic accidents and antimicrobial resistance in orthopaedic infections is challenging already strained health-care systems. Limited information exists in Tanzania on antimicrobial resistance surveillance to delineate the potential sources of multi-drug-resistant bacteria for specific mitigation strategies among orthopaedic patients.Methods: A longitudinal study was conducted at Bugando Medical Centre in Mwanza city between January and May 2020. It involved the collection of rectal swabs/stools, hand swabs, and environmental sampling to identify extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)-producing gram-negative bacteria. Participants’ data were collected using a structured questionnaire and analysed to determine factors associated with ESBL colonization among index orthopaedic patients and correlates with other ESBL sources using OR (95% CI) and a cut-off p-value of ≤ 0.05.Re

We explored associations between Plasmodium falciparum drug resistance-mediating polymorphisms and clinical presentations in parasitemic children enrolled in a cross-sectional survey in Tororo, Uganda, using a retrospective case-control design. All 243 febrile children (cases) and 243 randomly selected asymptomatic children (controls) were included. In a multivariate analysis adjusting for age, complexity of infection, and parasite density, the prevalence of wild-type genotypes was significantly higher in febrile children compared to asymptomatic children (pfcrt K76T: odds ratio [OR] 4.41 [95% confidence interval {CI}, 1.28-15.1]; pfmdr1 N86Y: OR 4.08 [95% CI, 2.01-8.31], and pfmdr1 D1246Y: OR 4.90 [95% CI, 1.52-15.8]), suggesting greater virulence for wild-type parasites.

Background Nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs) have offered hope for rapid diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB). However, their efficiency with smear-negative samples has not been widely studied in low income settings. Here, we evaluated in-house PCR assay for diagnosis of smear-negative TB using Lowenstein-Jensen (LJ) culture as the baseline test. Two hundred and five pulmonary TB (PTB) suspects with smear-negative sputum samples, admitted on a short stay emergency ward at Mulago Hospital in Kampala, Uganda, were enrolled. Two smear-negative sputum samples were obtained from each PTB suspect and processed simultaneously for identification of MTBC using in-house PCR and LJ culture. Results Seventy two PTB suspects (35%, 72/205) were LJ culture positive while 128 (62.4%, 128/205) were PCR-positive. The sensitivity and specificity of in-house PCR for diagnosis of smear-negative PTB were 75% (95% CI 62.6-85.0) and 35.9% (95% CI 27.2-45.3), respectively. The positive and negative predictive values were 39% (95% CI 30.4-48.2) and 72.4% (95% CI 59.1-83.3), respectively, while the positive and negative likelihood ratios were 1.17 (95% CI 0.96-1.42) and 0.70 (95% CI 0.43-1.14), respectively. One hundred and seventeen LJ culture-negative suspects (75 PCR-positive and 42 PCR-negative) were enrolled for follow-up at 2 months. Of the PCR-positive suspects, 45 (60%, 45/75) were still alive, of whom 29 (64.4%, 29/45) returned for the follow-up visit; 15 (20%, 15/75) suspects died while another 15 (20%, 15/75) were lost to follow-up. Of the 42 PCR-negative suspects, 22 (52.4%, 22/42) were still alive, of whom 16 (72.7%, 16/22) returned for follow-up; 11 (26.2%, 11/42) died while nine (21.4%, 9/42) were lost to follow-up. Overall, more PCR-positive suspects were diagnosed with PTB during follow-up visits but the difference was not statistically significant (27.6%, 8/29 vs. 25%, 4/16, p = 0.9239). Furthermore, mortality was higher for the PCR-negative suspects but the differ

Background Nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs) have offered hope for rapid diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB). However, their efficiency with smear-negative samples has not been widely studied in low income settings. Here, we evaluated in-house PCR assay for diagnosis of smear-negative TB using Lowenstein-Jensen (LJ) culture as the baseline test. Two hundred and five pulmonary TB (PTB) suspects with smear-negative sputum samples, admitted on a short stay emergency ward at Mulago Hospital in Kampala, Uganda, were enrolled. Two smear-negative sputum samples were obtained from each PTB suspect and processed simultaneously for identification of MTBC using in-house PCR and LJ culture. Results Seventy two PTB suspects (35%, 72/205) were LJ culture positive while 128 (62.4%, 128/205) were PCR-positive. The sensitivity and specificity of in-house PCR for diagnosis of smear-negative PTB were 75% (95% CI 62.6-85.0) and 35.9% (95% CI 27.2-45.3), respectively. The positive and negative predictive values were 39% (95% CI 30.4-48.2) and 72.4% (95% CI 59.1-83.3), respectively, while the positive and negative likelihood ratios were 1.17 (95% CI 0.96-1.42) and 0.70 (95% CI 0.43-1.14), respectively. One hundred and seventeen LJ culture-negative suspects (75 PCR-positive and 42 PCR-negative) were enrolled for follow-up at 2 months. Of the PCR-positive suspects, 45 (60%, 45/75) were still alive, of whom 29 (64.4%, 29/45) returned for the follow-up visit; 15 (20%, 15/75) suspects died while another 15 (20%, 15/75) were lost to follow-up. Of the 42 PCR-negative suspects, 22 (52.4%, 22/42) were still alive, of whom 16 (72.7%, 16/22) returned for follow-up; 11 (26.2%, 11/42) died while nine (21.4%, 9/42) were lost to follow-up. Overall, more PCR-positive suspects were diagnosed with PTB during follow-up visits but the difference was not statistically significant (27.6%, 8/29 vs. 25%, 4/16, p = 0.9239). Furthermore, mortality was higher for the PCR-negative suspects but the differ