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In 2020, fecal (stool) testing was recommended for diagnosing Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) infection in children by using the Cepheid Xpert MTB/RIF assay; since then, countries have begun implementing stool-based testing, often as part of a comprehensive strategy to enhance TB case finding among children. On the basis of an experience-sharing workshop in November 2023, we determined insights of 9 early-adopter countries. Across those countries, 71,757 children underwent stool testing over a combined period of 121 months, October 2020-September 2023. A total of 2,892 children were positive for MTBC, and rifampin resistance was confirmed for 43 stool samples. The overall yield of MTBC detection across the countries was 4.1% (range 1.1%-17.3%). Stool collection for Xpert testing was considered noninvasive and as easy as sputum testing. Stool-based testing can be integrated into peripheral healthcare levels as a routine test to increase bacteriologic confirmation among children with presumptive TB.

Tuberculosis (TB) transmission and prevalence are dynamic over time, and heterogeneous within populations. Public health programmes therefore require up-to-date, accurate epidemiological data to appropriately allocate resources, target interventions, and track progress towards End TB goals. Current methods of TB surveillance often rely on case notifications, which are biased by access to healthcare, and TB disease prevalence surveys, which are highly resource-intensive, requiring many tens of thousands of people to be tested to identify high-risk groups or capture trends. Surveys of "latent TB infection", or immunoreactivity to Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), using tests such as interferon-gamma release assays (IGRAs) could provide a way to identify TB transmission hotspots, supplementing information from disease notifications, and with greater spatial and temporal resolution than is possible to achieve in disease prevalence surveys. This cross-sectional survey will investigate the prevalence of Mtb immunoreactivity amongst young children, adolescents and adults in Blantyre, Malawi, a high HIV-prevalence city in southern Africa. Through this study we will estimate the annual risk of TB infection (ARTI) in Blantyre and explore individual- and area-level risk factors for infection, as well as investigating geospatial heterogeneity of Mtb infection (and its determinants), and comparing these to the distribution of TB disease case-notifications. We will also evaluate novel diagnostics for Mtb infection (QIAreach QFT) and sampling methodologies (convenience sampling in healthcare settings and community sampling based on satellite imagery), which may increase the feasibility of measuring Mtb infection at large scale. The overall aim is to provide high-resolution epidemiological data and provide new insights into methodologies which may be used by TB programmes globally., Competing Interests: The manufacturers of QFT-Plus and QIAreach QFT (QIAGEN) have agreed to provide tests at reduced or no cost for the purposes of research. The investigators will retain all control over research questions and design, data analysis and dissemination, and the manufacturer will play no role in study design, collection, analysis, and interpretation of data, or writing up the study findings., (Copyright: © 2024 Rickman et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Background: TB preventive treatment (TPT) reduces morbidity and mortality among people living with HIV (PLHIV). Despite the successful scale-up of TPT in Malawi, monitoring and evaluation have been suboptimal. We utilized the Malawi Population-Based HIV Impact Assessment (MPHIA) 2020-2021 survey data to estimate TPT uptake and completion among self-reported HIV-positive persons., Methods: We estimated the proportion of HIV-positive respondents who had ever undergone TPT, and determined the percentage of those currently on TPT who had completed more than 6 months of treatment. Bivariate and multivariable logistic regression were performed to calculate the odds ratios for factors associated with ever-taking TPT. All variables were self-reported, and the analysis was weighted and accounted for in the survey design., Results: Of the HIV+ respondents, 38.8% (95% CI 36.4-41.3) had ever taken TPT. The adjusted odds of ever taking TPT were 8.0 and 5.2 times as high in the Central and Southern regions, respectively, compared to the Northern region; 1.9 times higher among those in the highest wealth quintile, and 2.1 times higher for those on antiretroviral therapy >10 years. Of those currently taking TPT, 56.2% completed >6 months of TPT., Conclusion: These results suggest low TPT uptake and >6 months' completion rates among self-reported HIV+ persons. Initiatives to create demand and strengthen adherence would improve TPT uptake., Competing Interests: Conflicts of interest: none declared.

Competing Interests: No conflict of interest.

Initial global-level estimates reported in June 2020 by the World Health Organization suggested that levels of disruption to TB service delivery could be as high as 25%-50% and result in an additional 6·3 million cases of tuberculosis (TB) and an additional 1·4 million TB-related deaths attributable to COVID-19 between 2020 and 2025. Quarterly epidemiological estimates and programmatic TB data capturing disruption levels to each TB service were collected by National TB Programmes in Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, Malawi, Mozambique, and Peru. Data from 2019, for a pre-COVID-19 baseline, and throughout 2020, together with the NTP's COVID-19 response plans, were used within Optima TB models to project TB incidence and deaths over five years because of COVID-19-related disruptions, and the extent to which those impacts may be mitigated through proposed catch-up strategies in each country. Countries reported disruptions of up to 64% to demand-driven TB diagnosis. However, TB service availability disruptions were shorter and less severe, with TB treatment experiencing levels of disruption of up to 21%. We predicted that under the worse-case scenario cumulative new latent TB infections, new active TB infections, and TB-related deaths could increase by up to 23%, 11%, and 20%, respectively, by 2024. However, three of the five countries were on track to mitigate these increases to 3% or less by maintaining TB services in 2021 and 2022 and by implementing proposed catch-up strategies. Indonesia was already experiencing the worse-case scenario, which could lead to 270,000 additional active TB infections and 36,000 additional TB-related deaths by the end of 2024. The COVID-19 pandemic is projected to negatively affect progress towards 2035 End TB targets, especially in countries already off-track. Findings highlight both successful TB service delivery adaptions in 2020 and the need to proactively maintain TB service availability despite potential future waves of more transmissible COVID-19 variants., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2022 Martin-Hughes et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)