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Introduction: The aim was to assess weight gain during tuberculosis treatment in patients co-infected with tuberculosis and HIV. Methods: Tuberculosis patients co-infected with HIV and undergoing tuberculosis treatment in the pneumophtisiology and infectious and tropical diseases departments of the CHU in Conakry were included. Results: 562 patients were included, with a mean age of 35.6±11.3 years, and 52.5% were women. The average Body Mass Index [BMI] at baseline was 17.8 3.3 kg/m2. 71.5% of patients had a favorable result and 28.5% had an unfavorable result [death, abandonment]. Healed and lost patients gained an average of 2.6 kg and 0.1 kg respectively. Deceased patients lost an average of 3.6 kg. The weight variations of the cured patients were different from those of the deceased [p < 0.001]. A weight gain of 5% after 6 months of treatment was associated with the treatment site [OR=3.81; 95% CI 1.08 to 13.45], alcohol consumption [OR=10.33; 95% CI 1.20 to 89.16], malnutrition before treatment [OR=2.72; 95% CI 1.43 to 5.17] and the form of tuberculosis [OR=3.27; 95% CI 1.15 to 9.33]. Conclusion: Newly diagnosed patients co-infected with TB-HIV at Conakry's CHU are often malnourished. Weight gain during treatment seems to be a reliable indicator of the overall response to treatment.

Guinea, like many other African countries, has been facing an unprecedented COVID-19 outbreak, since March 2020. In April 2020, Guinean National agency for health security recorded 1351 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 313 recoveries and 07 deaths. To address this health crisis, some drastic measures were implemented to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Those measures might potentially cause some psychological problems among Guineans. Thus, we conducted this study to assess the psychosocial impacts of COVID-19 in the Guinean population. We carried out an online cross-sectional survey among internet users in Guinea. A free e-survey platform was used, and questionnaires were sent to internet users. The study ran from May 1 through May 10 2020. Participation in the study was voluntary. Data collection was based on sociodemographic information and self-reported questionnaires: Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) for stress evaluation, Penn state worry questionnaire (PSWQ), and an adapted Social Psychological Measurements of COVID-19. A total of 280 participants took part in the study; responses from 5 participants were deleted because of incompleteness. The average age of participants was 28.9 [95% CI: 28.1;29.6]. Most of participants were male 65.5% [95% CI: 59.5%;71.1%]. Unemployed participants stood for 48.7% [95% CI: 42.7%;54.8%]. IES-R scale for stress evaluation yielded the following findings: 19.6% (mild), 5.23% (moderate) and 9.15% (severe); 82.8% and 17.2% of participants had respectively reported low and moderate worry. No significant statistical association was found between sociodemographic variables and traumatic events (IES-R and PSWQ). However, 82% of our participants had to cope with the negative impacts of COVID-19. Although there were few cases of traumatic events, negative impacts of COVID-19 on study participants deserve to be underlined. So, further investigations are necessary to identify and disentangle specific psychosocial problems in different Guinean socio-cultural contexts.

Background: Most countries in Subsaharan Africa have well-established National Tuberculosis Control Programs with relatively stable routine performances. However, major epidemiological events may result in significant disruptions. In March 2014, the World Health Organization announced the outbreak of Ebola virus disease in Guinea, a country with a high incidence of TB and HIV. Our study aims to assess the impact of the Ebola virus disease outbreak on TB notification, treatment and surveillance, using main indicators.Methods: This is a retrospective cohort study that compares TB trends using surveillance data from the periods before (2011-2013), during (2014-2016) and after (2017-2018) Ebola virus disease outbreak. A time series analysis is conducted to investigate the linkages between the decline in TB notification and the Ebola virus disease outbreak through cross-correlation. The lag in the cross-correlation test is evaluated using ANCOVA type II delayed variable dependent model. The surveillance system is assessed using TB surveillance standards and benchmarks and vital registration systems recommended by WHO, compared with those of 2015 during the Ebola virus disease.Results: The rate of reporting of TB declined from 120 cases per 100,000 in 2011 to 100 cases per 100,000 in 2014, at the peak of the Ebola virus disease outbreak. The time series cross-correlation test of all notified cases of TB and Ebola shows a significant lag of -0.4 (40%), reflecting a drop in the rate of notification (F-value=5.7 [95% CI: 0.2-21.3]). However, the Ebola virus disease had no negative impact on patient treatment outcomes (F-value=1.3 [95% CI: 0.002-8.8179]). Regarding the surveillance system, five out of 13 WHO standards and benchmarks were met following their evaluation in 2019, after the Ebola virus disease outbreak, compared to three in 2015.Conclusion: Major epidemics such as the Ebola virus disease outbreak may have a significant impact on well-established TB control programs as shown in the example of Guinea. On the other hand, it is noticed that, sudden disruptions of routine performance may lead programs to improve their surveillance system.

Background: Despite the predictor role of the body weight variation on multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) treatment outcome, little data are available to corroborate this finding. We aimed to study the course of weight in patients with MDR-TB, to identify subgroups of weight evolutions, and to determine factors that influence these evolutions. Methods: Patients treated with a shorter MDR-TB treatment regimen between June 07, 2016 and June 22, 2018 from three major drug-resistance TB centers in Guinea, who had rifampicin resistance, and who were cured or died were analyzed. Patients were seen monthly until the end of treatment. Clinical outcome was the Body Mass Index (BMI). We used a linear mixed model to analyze the course of BMI and a latent class mixed model to identify subgroup of BMI evolutions. Results: Of 232 patients treated for MDR-TB during the study period, 165 were analyzed. These patients had a total of 1387 visits, with a median of 5 visits (interquartile range, 3 – 8 visits). Monthly BMI increase was 0.24 (SE 0.02) per kg/m 2 . Factors that associated with faster BMI progression were cured to MDR-TB treatment (0.24 [SE 0.09] per kg/m 2 ; p = 0.0205), and the absence of lung cavities on X-ray (0.18 [0.06] per kg/m 2 ; p = 0.0068). Two subgroups of BMI evolution were identified: “Rapid BMI (n = 121; 85%) and “Slow BMI evolution (n = 22; 15%). Patients in the slow increasing BMI group were mostly female (68%) without history of TB treatment (41%), with positive HIV infection (59%), with most severe clinical condition at baseline, characterized by a higher frequency of symptoms including depression (18%), dyspnea (68%), poor adherence to MDR-TB treatment (64%), lower platelets count, and higher liver SGOT count. These patients had also a longer time to-initial culture conversion delay (log-rank test: p = 0.0087). Conclusion: The available data provided quantitative information on BMI progression of patients with MDR-TB treated with a shorter regimen, and allowed the identification of the subgroup of patients with different BMI evolutions. Furthermore, they emphasized the usefulness of BMI as biomarker to monitor MDR-TB treatment outcome.

Setting Since August 2016, after the Ebola outbreak, the Guinean National Tuberculosis Programme and Damien Foundation implemented the shorter treatment regimen (STR) for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) in the three MDR-TB sites of Conakry. Previously, the longer regimen was used to treat MDR-TB. Objectives In a post-Ebola context, with a weakened health system, we describe the MDR-TB treatment uptake, patients characteristics, treatment outcomes and estimate the effect of using the longer versus STR on having a programmatically adverse outcome. Design This is a retrospective cohort study in RR-TB patients treated with either the longer regimen or STR. Results In Conakry, in 2016 and 2017, 131 and 219 patients were diagnosed with rifampicin-resistant tuberculosis (RR-TB); and 108 and 163 started treatment, respectively. Of 271 patients who started treatment, 75 were treated with the longer regimen and 196 with the STR. Patients characteristics were similar regardless of the regimen except that the median age was higher among those treated with a longer regimen (30 years (IQR:24–38) versus 26 years (IQR:21–39) for the STR. Patients treated with a STR were more likely to obtain a programmatically favorable outcome (74.0% vs 58.7%, p = 0.01) as lost to follow up was higher among those treated with a longer regimen (20.0% vs 8.2%, p = 0.006). Patients on a longer regimen were more than 2 times more likely (aOR: 2.5; 95%CI:1.3,4.7) to have a programmatically adverse outcome as well as being 45 years or older (aOR: 2.8; 95%CI:1.3,6.2), HIV positive (aOR:3.3; 95%CI:1.6,6.6) and attendance at a clinic without NGO support (aOR:3.0; 95%:1.6,5.7). Conclusion In Guinea, patients treated with the STR were more likely to have a successful outcome than those treated with the longer MDR-TB treatment regimen. Lost to follow-up was higher in patients on the longer regimen. However, STR treatment outcomes were less good than those reported in the region.

Additional file 1: Appendix: Table 1. Predictors of BMI increase in patients with MDR-TB, univariate linear mixed random-effect regression. Data are given as mean (SE); SE = standard error. Table 2. Summary of the estimated latent class mixed model for the MDR-TB patient data (n = 165). Number of latent classes (G) that correspond to the number of fitted models, log-likelihood (L), number of parameters (P), Bayesian information criterion (BIC), integrated classification likelihood with BIC (ICL-BIC), proportion of patients in each latent class (%). Group membership was explained by treatment outcome and lung cavities on X-ray. The model with the lower ICL-BIC was chosen as the best one, which considers the quality of the classification in addition to the goodness of fit when selecting the optimal number of latent classes. Table 3. Final posterior classification Number (%) of patients in each class, and mean posterior probabilities of the latent class membership according to the final posterior classification. For example, patients in the rapid BMI increase group were assigned to this class with a mean probability of 99.74% vs a probability of 0.26% of belonging to the slow BMI increase group. Conversely, patients classified in the slow BMI increase group were assigned to this class with a mean probability of 81.9% vs. a probability of 18.1% of belonging to the rapid BMI increase group.

Background Sputum smear and culture examination were used as bacteriological marker to monitor multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) treatment. We aimed to identify the strongest contributing factors that affect time-to sputum bacteriological conversion, and to develop a practical risk scoreMethods Patients treated with shorter MDR-TB treatment regime between June 07, 2016 and June 22, 2018 from three major drug-resistance TB centres in Guinea, who had a positive smear or culture at baseline, and who had rifampicin resistance were analysed. Sputum bacteriological conversion was defined as two consecutive negative smear or culture taken at least 30 days apart. Cox regression model was used to analyse time-to initial sputum conversion, and to identify influencing factors. A simple risk score was constructed using the regression coefficients from each final model. Time-dependent AUC was used to determine the optimal time points of bacteriological conversion.Results 75% (173/232) of patients with a positive smear and culture at baseline were analyzed. A total, 90.2% (156/173) and 89% (154/173) of the patients had smear and culture conversions in a median of 59 days (inter-quartile range: 59 – 61) respectively. Lower colony count (< 3 +) of initial culture (aHR = 1.52, 1.09 – 2.14) and previously history of TB treatment (aHR = 2.10, 1.26 – 3.51) were more likely to have culture conversion, while only the higher BMI (aHR = 1.10, 1.03 – 1.18) was associated with rapid smear conversion. The predicted risk score from independent predictors showed good discrimination (0.855 ± 0.023 and 0.883 ± 0.02 respectively for smear and culture conversions). Time-to initial culture conversion provided a better discriminative capacity (AUC) to detect patients with higher chance to being treatment success during the first three months.Conclusion The identified predictors can be considered to improve the management of MDR-TB patients. The optimal time points for culture conversion was three months in shorter regime. Keywords: Conversion, Multidrug-resistant, Tuberculosis, Guinea.

Abstract Background: Despite the availability of the drug treatment for tuberculosis (TB) more than 75 years, mortality and drug resistance are increasing. Therefore, little data is available in Guinea. We aimed to develop and validate a prognosis nomogram of MDR-TB treatment outcomes. Methods:A retrospective cohort study was conducted among men and women, aged 18 years or older, with MDR-TB, from three major drug-resistance TB centres in Guinea. We used the logistic regression to analyse treatment outcomes. Prognostic factors with a p value less than 0.05 from a multivariate model were used to build nomogram and assessed their performance based on discriminative c-index, and calibration using the Hosmer-Lemeshow (H-L) test. To derive the optimal cut-off point score, the Youden’s index method was used. Results:Among 232 patients with MDR-TBenrolled and followed between June 07, 2016 and June 22, 2018, 218 were analyzed. All patients were resistant to rifampicin, which diagnosed by the Xpert MTB/RIF. The overall rate of success was 73%.Factors associated with successful treatment in drug-resistant TB patients were higher BMI more than 18.5 kg/m2(p = 0.0253; aOR = 2.94), good adherence to treatment (p = < 0.0001; aOR = 33.92), normal platelets count (p = 0.0053; OR = 1.004), and the absence of clinical symptoms such as chest pain (p = 0.0083; aOR = 3.19) and depression (p = 0.0308; aOR = 8.62). The discrimination (c-index= 0.848 [95% bootstrap CI, 0.780 – 0.916] in the derivation sample and 0.803 after correction for optimism) and calibration (H-LX2= 2.91 [p = 0.94]) were good. The optimal absolute risk threshold was 20%, corresponding to a sensibility of 95% and specificity of 58%. Conclusion:Treatment success outcomes was lower than those recommended by the World Health Organization (75%). We recommend to improve the MDR-TB patient monitoring during treatment, nutritional status, and considering the psychological state. Our prognosis nomogram needs to be validated in an external population before it can be used in clinical practice. Keywords:Nomogram, Multidrug-resistant, Tuberculosis, Guinea.

Background: Despite the predictor role of the body weight variation on multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) treatment outcome, little data are available to corroborate this finding. We aimed to study the course of weight in patients with MDR-TB, to identify subgroups of weight evolutions, and to determine factors that influence these evolutions. Methods: Patients treated with a shorter MDR-TB treatment regimen between June 07, 2016 and June 22, 2018 from three major drug-resistance TB centres in Guinea, who had rifampicin resistance, and who were cured or died were analysed. Patients were seen monthly until the end of treatment. Clinical outcome was the Body Mass Index (BMI). We used a linear mixed model to analyze the course of BMI and a latent class mixed model to identify subgroup of BMI evolutions. Findings: Of 232 patients treated for MDR-TB during the study period, only 165 (71%) patients who were cured or died were analysed. These patients had a total of 1387 visits, with a median of 5 visits (interquartile range, 3 - 8 visits). Monthly BMI increase was 0·24 (SE 0·02) per kg/m2. Factors that associated with faster BMI progression were cured to MDR-TB treatment (0·24 [SE 0·09] per kg/m2; p = 0·0205), and the absence of lung cavities on X-ray (0·18 [0·06] per kg/m2; p = 0·0068). Two subgroups of BMI evolution were identified: "Rapid BMI (n = 121; 85%) and "Slow BMI evolution (n = 22; 15%). Patients in the slow increasing BMI group were mostly female (68%) without history of TB treatment (41%) with most severe clinical condition at baseline, characterized by a higher frequency of symptoms including HIV infection (59%), depression (18%), dyspnea (68%), nausea (23%), poor adherence to MDR-TB treatment (64%), lower platelets count, and higher liver SGOT count. These patients had also a longer time to-initial culture conversion delay (log-rank test: p = 0·0087). Interpretation: The available data provide quantitative information on BMI progression of patients with MDR-TB treated with a shorter regimen, and allowed the identification of the subgroup of patients with different BMI evolutions. Furthermore, they emphasize the usefulness of BMI as biomarker to monitor MDR-TB treatment outcome, and allow more efficient use of resources and patient management. Funding Statement: The authors stated: "None" Declaration of Interests: The authors declare no competing interests in relation with this work. Ethics Approval Statement: The study was approved by the National Ethics Committee for Heath Research (NECHR) attached to the Ministry of Health (Conakry, Guinea).

Background: Sputum smear and culture examination were used as bacteriological marker to monitor multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) treatment. We aimed to identify the strongest contributing factors that affect time-to sputum bacteriological conversion, and to develop a practical risk score. Methods: Patients treated with shorter MDR-TB treatment regime between June 07, 2016 and June 22, 2018 from three major drug-resistance TB centres in Guinea, who had a positive smear or culture at baseline, and who had rifampicin resistance were analysed. Sputum bacteriological conversion was defined as two consecutive negative smear or culture taken at least 30 days apart. Cox regression model was used to analyse time-to initial sputum conversion, and to identify influencing factors. A simple risk score was constructed using the regression coefficients from each final model. Time-dependent AUC was used to determine the optimal time points of bacteriological conversion. Results: 75% (173/232) of patients with a positive smear and culture at baseline were analyzed. A total, 90.2% (156/173) and 89% (154/173) of the patients had smear and culture conversions in a median of 59 days (inter-quartile range: 59–61) respectively. Lower colony count (

Despite the availability of the drug treatment for tuberculosis (TB) more than 75 years, mortality and drug resistance are increasing. Therefore, little data is available in Guinea. We aimed to develop and validate a prognosis nomogram of MDR-TB treatment outcomes. A retrospective cohort study was conducted among men and women, aged 18 years or older, with MDR-TB, from three major drug-resistance TB centres in Guinea. We used the logistic regression to analyse treatment outcomes. Prognostic factors with a p value less than 0.05 from a multivariate model were used to build nomogram and assessed their performance based on discriminative c-index, and calibration using the Hosmer-Lemeshow (H-L) test. To derive the optimal cut-off point score, the Youden’s index method was used. Among 232 patients with MDR-TB enrolled and followed between June 07, 2016 and June 22, 2018, 218 were analyzed. All patients were resistant to rifampicin, which diagnosed by the Xpert MTB/RIF. The overall rate of success was 73%. Factors associated with successful treatment in drug-resistant TB patients were higher BMI more than 18.5 kg/m2 (p = 0.0253; aOR = 2.94), good adherence to treatment (p = < 0.0001; aOR = 33.92), normal platelets count (p = 0.0053; OR = 1.004), and the absence of clinical symptoms such as chest pain (p = 0.0083; aOR = 3.19) and depression (p = 0.0308; aOR = 8.62). The discrimination (c-index = 0.848 [95% bootstrap CI, 0.780 – 0.916] in the derivation sample and 0.803 after correction for optimism) and calibration (H-LX2 = 2.91 [p = 0.94]) were good. The optimal absolute risk threshold was 20%, corresponding to a sensibility of 95% and specificity of 58%. Treatment success outcomes was lower than those recommended by the World Health Organization (75%). We recommend to improve the MDR-TB patient monitoring during treatment, nutritional status, and considering the psychological state. Our prognosis nomogram needs to be validated in an external population before it can be used in clinical practice.

Setting Ten targeted health facilities supported by Damien Foundation (a Belgian Non Governmental Organization) and the National Tuberculosis (TB) Program in Conakry, Guinea. Objectives To uphold TB program performance during the Ebola outbreak in the presence of a package of pre-emptive additional measures geared at reinforcing the routine TB program, and ensuring Ebola infection control, health-workers safety and motivation. Design A retrospective comparative cohort study of a TB program assessing the performance before (2013) and during the (2014) Ebola outbreak. Results During the Ebola outbreak, all health facilities were maintained opened, there were no reported health-worker Ebola infections, drug stockouts or health staff absences. Of 2,475 presumptive pulmonary TB cases, 13% were diagnosed with TB in both periods (160/1203 in 2013 and 163/1272 in 2014). For new TB, treatment success improved from 84% before to 87% during the Ebola outbreak (P = 0.03). Adjusted Hazard-ratios (AHR) for an unfavorable outcome was alwo lower during the Ebola outbreak, AHR = 0.8, 95% CI:0.7–0.9, P = 0.04). Treatment success improved for HIV co-infected patients (72% to 80%, P