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Background: Longitudinal cohort data of patients with tuberculosis (TB) and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are lacking. In our global study, we describe long-term outcomes of patients affected by TB and COVID-19., Methods: We collected data from 174 centres in 31 countries on all patients affected by COVID-19 and TB between 1 March 2020 and 30 September 2022. Patients were followed-up until cure, death or end of cohort time. All patients had TB and COVID-19; for analysis purposes, deaths were attributed to TB, COVID-19 or both. Survival analysis was performed using Cox proportional risk-regression models, and the log-rank test was used to compare survival and mortality attributed to TB, COVID-19 or both., Results: Overall, 788 patients with COVID-19 and TB (active or sequelae) were recruited from 31 countries, and 10.8% (n=85) died during the observation period. Survival was significantly lower among patients whose death was attributed to TB and COVID-19 versus those dying because of either TB or COVID-19 alone (p<0.001). Significant adjusted risk factors for TB mortality were higher age (hazard ratio (HR) 1.05, 95% CI 1.03-1.07), HIV infection (HR 2.29, 95% CI 1.02-5.16) and invasive ventilation (HR 4.28, 95% CI 2.34-7.83). For COVID-19 mortality, the adjusted risks were higher age (HR 1.03, 95% CI 1.02-1.04), male sex (HR 2.21, 95% CI 1.24-3.91), oxygen requirement (HR 7.93, 95% CI 3.44-18.26) and invasive ventilation (HR 2.19, 95% CI 1.36-3.53)., Conclusions: In our global cohort, death was the outcome in >10% of patients with TB and COVID-19. A range of demographic and clinical predictors are associated with adverse outcomes., Competing Interests: Conflict of interest: The authors have no potential conflicts of interest to disclose., (Copyright ©The authors 2023.)

Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared.

Tuberculosis (TB) does not respect borders, and migration confounds global TB control and elimination. Systematic screening of immigrants from TB high burden settings and-to a lesser degree TB infection (TBI)-is recommended in most countries with a low incidence of TB. The aim of the study was to evaluate the views of a diverse group of international health professionals on TB management among migrants. Participants expressed their level of agreement using a six-point Likert scale with different statements in an online survey available in English, French, Mandarin, Spanish, Portuguese and Russian. The survey consisted of eight sections, covering TB and TBI screening and treatment in migrants. A total of 1055 respondents from 80 countries and territories participated between November 2019 and April 2020. The largest professional groups were pulmonologists (16.8%), other clinicians (30.4%), and nurses (11.8%). Participants generally supported infection control and TB surveillance established practices (administrative interventions, personal protection, etc.), while they disagreed on how to diagnose and manage both TB and TBI, particularly on which TBI regimens to use and when patients should be hospitalised. The results of this first knowledge, attitude and practice study on TB screening and treatment in migrants will inform public health policy and educational resources.

The production of tuberculosis (TB) research and innovation in Latin America during the past decade has notably improved. Its role in the acceleration of the decline of the average annual TB incidence rate by 2.5% from 2017 to 2018 is still unclear, but it is looking promising that the region will meet the End TB Strategy targets set for 2030. Well performed and high-quality research and evidence is critical for improving national TB control programme outcomes. In Latin America, this need is most apparent when responding to the multidrug-resistant TB epidemic.There is an urgent need for technological breakthroughs to accelerate by an average of 17% per year if the decline in TB incidence rate is to meet the target set for 2030. Intensified research and innovation, identified as one of the three essential pillars of the End TB Strategy, has scarcely been achieved in the region due to political and economic context. This will be analysed further in this article., Competing Interests: Provenance: Commissioned article, peer reviewed Conflict of interest: S. Manga has nothing to disclose., (©The authors 2021.)

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that countries implement pharmacovigilance and collect information on active drug safety monitoring (aDSM) and management of adverse events.The aim of this prospective study was to evaluate the frequency and severity of adverse events to anti-tuberculosis (TB) drugs in a cohort of consecutive TB patients treated with new ( i.e. bedaquiline, delamanid) and repurposed ( i.e. clofazimine, linezolid) drugs, based on the WHO aDSM project. Adverse events were collected prospectively after attribution to a specific drug together with demographic, bacteriological, radiological and clinical information at diagnosis and during therapy. This interim analysis included patients who completed or were still on treatment at time of data collection.Globally, 45 centres from 26 countries/regions reported 658 patients (68.7% male, 4.4% HIV co-infected) treated as follows: 87.7% with bedaquiline, 18.4% with delamanid (6.1% with both), 81.5% with linezolid and 32.4% with clofazimine. Overall, 504 adverse event episodes were reported: 447 (88.7%) were classified as minor (grade 1-2) and 57 (11.3%) as serious (grade 3-5). The majority of the 57 serious adverse events reported by 55 patients (51 out of 57, 89.5%) ultimately resolved. Among patients reporting serious adverse events, some drugs held responsible were discontinued: bedaquiline in 0.35% (two out of 577), delamanid in 0.8% (one out of 121), linezolid in 1.9% (10 out of 536) and clofazimine in 1.4% (three out of 213) of patients. Serious adverse events were reported in 6.9% (nine out of 131) of patients treated with amikacin, 0.4% (one out of 221) with ethionamide/prothionamide, 2.8% (15 out of 536) with linezolid and 1.8% (eight out of 498) with cycloserine/terizidone.The aDSM study provided valuable information, but implementation needs scaling-up to support patient-centred care., Competing Interests: Conflict of interest: S. Borisov has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: E. Danila has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: A. Maryandyshev has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: M. Dalcolmo has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: S. Miliauskas has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: L. Kuksa reports personal fees for trial participation from Otsuka and Tibotec, personal fees for lectures from Johnson and Johnson Services Inc., outside the submitted work. Conflict of interest: S. Manga has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: A. Skrahina has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: S. Diktanas reports personal fees for trial participation from Otsuka, grants for meeting attendance from Janssen (Sirturo), outside the submitted work. Conflict of interest: L.R. Codecasa has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: A. Aleksa has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: J. Bruchfeld has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: A. Koleva has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: A. Piubello has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: Z.F. Udwadia has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: O.W. Akkerman has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: E. Belilovski has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: E. Bernal has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: M.J. Boeree has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: J. Cadiñanos Loidi has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: Q. Cai has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: J.J. Cebrian Gallardo has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: M. Dara has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: E. Davidavičienė has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: L. Davies Forsman has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: J. De Los Rios has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: J. Denholm has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: J. Drakšienė has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: R. Duarte has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: S.E. Elamin has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: N. Escobar Salinas has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: M. Ferrarese has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: A. Filippov has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: A. Garcia has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: J.M. García-García has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: I. Gaudiesiute has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: B. Gavazova has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: R. Gayoso has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: R. Gomez Rosso has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: V. Gruslys has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: G. Gualano has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: W. Hoefsloot has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: J. Jonsson has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: E. Khimova has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: H. Kunst has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: R. Laniado-Laborín has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: Y. Li has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: C. Magis-Escurra has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: V. Manfrin has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: V. Marchese has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: E. Martínez Robles has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: A. Matteelli has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: J. Mazza-Stalder has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: C. Moschos has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: M. Muñoz-Torrico has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: H. Mustafa Hamdan has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: B. Nakčerienė has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: L. Nicod has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: M. Nieto Marcos has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: D.J. Palmero has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: F. Palmieri has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: A. Papavasileiou has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: M-C. Payen has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: A. Pontarelli has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: S. Quirós has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: A. Rendon has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: L. Saderi has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: A. Šmite has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: I. Solovic has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: M.B. Souleymane has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: M. Tadolini has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: M. van den Boom has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: M. Vescovo has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: P. Viggiani has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: A. Yedilbayev has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: R. Zablockis has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: D. Zhurkin has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: M. Zignol has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: D. Visca has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: A. Spanevello has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: J.A. Caminero has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: J-W. Alffenaar has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: S. Tiberi has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: R. Centis has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: L. D'Ambrosio has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: E. Pontali has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: G. Sotgiu has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: G.B. Migliori has nothing to disclose., (Copyright ©ERS 2019.)

Objectives: No study evaluated the contribution of adjunctive surgery in bedaquiline-treated patients. This study describes treatment outcomes and complications in a cohort of drug-resistant pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) cases treated with bedaquiline-containing regimens undergoing surgery., Methods: This retrospective observational study recruited patients treated for TB in 12 centres in 9 countries between January 2007 and March 2015. Patients who had surgical indications in a bedaquiline-treated programme-based cohort were selected and surgery-related information was collected. Patient characteristics and surgical indications were described together with type of operation, surgical complications, bacteriological conversion rates, and treatment outcomes. Treatment outcomes were evaluated according to the time of surgery., Results: 57 bedaquiline-exposed cases resistant to a median of 7 drugs had indication for surgery (52 retreatments; 50 extensively drug-resistant (XDR) or pre XDR-TB). Sixty percent of cases initiated bedaquiline treatment following surgery, while 36.4% underwent the bedaquiline regimen before surgery and completed it after the operation. At treatment completion 90% culture-converted with 69.1% achieving treatment success; 21.8% had unfavourable outcomes (20.0% treatment failure, 1.8% lost to follow-up), and 9.1% were still undergoing treatment., Conclusions: The study results suggest that bedaquiline and surgery can be safely and effectively combined in selected cases with a specific indication., (Copyright © 2018 The British Infection Association. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Large studies on bedaquiline used to treat multidrug-resistant (MDR-) and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) are lacking. This study aimed to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of bedaquiline-containing regimens in a large, retrospective, observational study conducted in 25 centres and 15 countries in five continents.428 culture-confirmed MDR-TB cases were analysed (61.5% male; 22.1% HIV-positive, 45.6% XDR-TB). MDR-TB cases were admitted to hospital for a median (interquartile range (IQR)) 179 (92-280) days and exposed to bedaquiline for 168 (86-180) days. Treatment regimens included, among others, linezolid, moxifloxacin, clofazimine and carbapenems (82.0%, 58.4%, 52.6% and 15.3% of cases, respectively).Sputum smear and culture conversion rates in MDR-TB cases were 63.6% and 30.1%, respectively at 30 days, 81.1% and 56.7%, respectively at 60 days; 85.5% and 80.5%, respectively at 90 days and 88.7% and 91.2%, respectively at the end of treatment. The median (IQR) time to smear and culture conversion was 34 (30-60) days and 60 (33-90) days. Out of 247 culture-confirmed MDR-TB cases completing treatment, 71.3% achieved success (62.4% cured; 8.9% completed treatment), 13.4% died, 7.3% defaulted and 7.7% failed. Bedaquiline was interrupted due to adverse events in 5.8% of cases. A single case died, having electrocardiographic abnormalities that were probably non-bedaquiline related.Bedaquiline-containing regimens achieved high conversion and success rates under different nonexperimental conditions., Competing Interests: Conflict of interest: Disclosures can be found alongside this article at erj.ersjournals.com, (Copyright ©ERS 2017.)

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) continues to cause an outsized burden of morbidity and mortality worldwide, still missing efficient and largely accessible diagnostic tools determining an appropriate control of the disease. Serological tests have the potentially to impact TB diagnosis, in particular in extreme clinical settings., Methods: The diagnostic performances of the TB-XT HEMA EXPRESS (HEMA-EXPRESS) immunochromatographic rapid test for active TB diagnosis, based on use of multiple Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) specific antigens, have been evaluated in a large study multicentre TB case-finding study, in populations with different exposure level to TB. A total of 1,386 subjects were enrolled in the six participating centres in Peru: 290 active-TB and 1,096 unaffected subjects., Results: The TB prevalence (overall 20.5%) varied between 4.0% and 41.1% in the different study groups. Overall, the HEMA-EXPRESS test had 30.6% sensitivity (range 3.9-77.9%) and 84.6% specificity (range 51.6-97.3%). A significant inverse correlation between test accuracy (overall 73.5%, range 40.4-96.4%) and TB prevalence in the various study populations was observed (Pearson's r=-0.7985; P=0.05)., Conclusions: HEMA-EXPRESS, is rapid and relatively inexpensive test suitable for routine use in TB diagnosis. In low TB prevalence conditions, test performance appears in line with WHO Target Product Profile for TB diagnostics. Performances appear suboptimal in high TB prevalence settings. Appropriate set-up in operative clinical settings has to be considered for novel serological tests for TB diagnosis, particularly for formats suitable for point-of-care use., Competing Interests: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.