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Adolescents account for an estimated 800,000 incident tuberculosis (TB) cases annually and are at risk for suboptimal adherence to TB treatment. Most studies of adolescent TB treatment adherence have used surveillance data with limited psychosocial information. This prospective cohort study aimed to identify risk factors for suboptimal adherence to rifampicin-susceptible TB treatment among adolescents (10-19 years old) in Lima, Peru. We collected psychosocial data using self-administered surveys and clinical data via medical record abstraction. Applying k-means cluster analysis, we grouped participants by psychosocial characteristics hypothesized to impact adherence. Then, we conducted mixed effects regression to compare suboptimal adherence-defined as 10% of doses)-between clusters. Treatment setting (facility vs. home) and drug formulation (single drug vs. fixed dose combination) were interaction terms. Of 249 participants, 90 (36.1%) were female. Median age was 17 (IQR: 15, 16.6) years. We identified three clusters-A, B, and C-of participants based on psychosocial characteristics. Cluster C had the lowest support from caregivers, other family members, and friends; had the weakest motivation to complete TB treatment; were least likely to live with their mothers; and had experienced the most childhood adversity. Among the 118 (47.4%) participants who received facility-based treatment with single drug formulations, adherence did not differ between Clusters A and B, but Cluster C had six-fold odds of suboptimal adherence compared to Cluster A. In Clusters B and C, adherence worsened over time, but only in Cluster C did mean adherence fall below 90% within six months. Our findings have implications for the care of adolescents with TB. When caring for adolescents with low social support and other risk factors, clinicians should take extra measures to reinforce adherence, such as identifying a community health worker or peer to provide treatment support. Implementing newly recommended shorter regimens also may facilitate adherence.

US guidelines have recommended testing children emigrating from high tuberculosis-incidence countries with interferon-gamma release assays (IGRAs) or tuberculin skin tests (TSTs). We describe the Harris County (Texas) Public Health Refugee Health Screening Program’s testing results during 2010–2015 for children 1 positive test: 143/1,842 (7.8%) were tested with TST alone, 129/3,730 (3.5%) with IGRA alone, and 92/298 (30.9%) with both TST and IGRA. Region of origin and younger age were associated with positive TST or IGRA results. All children were more likely to have positive results for TST than for IGRA (OR 2.92, 95% CI 2.37–3.59). Discordant test results were common (20%) and most often were TST+/IGRA– (95.0%), likely because of bacillus Calmette-Guérin vaccination. Finding fewer false positives supports the 2018 change in US immigration guidelines that recommends using IGRAs for recently immigrated children.

Tuberculous meningitis (TBM) remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality in children with tuberculosis (TB), yet there are currently no estimates of the global burden of pediatric TBM. Due to frequent non-specific clinical presentation and limited and inadequate diagnostic tests, children with TBM are often diagnosed late or die undiagnosed. Even when diagnosed and treated, 20% of children with TBM die. Of survivors, the majority have substantial neurological disability with significant negative impact on children and their families. Surveillance data on this devastating form of TB can help to quantify the contribution of TBM to the overall burden, morbidity and mortality of TB in children and the epidemiology of TB more broadly. Pediatric TBM usually occurs shortly after primary infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis and reflects ongoing TB transmission to children. In this article we explain the public health importance of pediatric TBM, discuss the epidemiology within the context of overall TB control and health system functioning and the limitations of current surveillance strategies. We provide a clear rationale for the benefit of improved surveillance of pediatric TBM using a TB care cascade framework to support monitoring and evaluation of pediatric TB, and TB control more broadly. Considering the public health implications of a diagnosis of TBM in children, we provide recommendations to strengthen pediatric TBM surveillance and outline how improved surveillance can help us identify opportunities for prevention, earlier diagnosis and improved care to minimize the impact of TBM on children globally.

In this retrospective study, we assessed the safety of window period prophylaxis and proportion of tuberculin skin test (TST) conversions in children

Exergy is a thermodynamic property that represents the quantification of the maximum useful work that can be extracted from a system interacting with the environment. Regarding solar radiation, radiative exergy has been a matter of study over the last 60 years where the main models applied describe the radiation as undiluted and diluted. The exergy of solar radiation is useful in the preliminary assessment of the performance of solar technologies, since the efficiency of the system depends directly on this value. The present paper describes a review of the main models reported in the literature considering these two approaches, analysing the main differences between the models and the main assumptions applied. A comparative analysis is carried out for the models of diluted and undiluted radiation, where the behaviour of every expression is discussed in detail. For the undiluted expressions, the behaviour of every model within a temperature range is analysed. For black-body radiation at a source temperature of 6000 K, the model proposed by Jeter determines an exergy factor of 0.96, while Spanner, Petela, Press and Badescu calculate a value of 0.93. Parrott’s model obtains a value of 0.99, which is above the value for Carnot efficiency. The diluted exergy expressions were evaluated according to wavelength and temperature range, where the trend in each comparison was that the exergy calculated from Karlsson, Candau and Petela was always the lowest. This result is attributed to the fact that these expressions consider the spectral entropy of the medium the radiation passes through. Finally, some new approaches are analysed which consider empirical correlations based on meteorological variables to model the exergy of solar radiation.

In low tuberculosis-burden countries, children and adolescents with the highest incidence of tuberculosis (TB) infection or disease are usually those who have immigrated from high-burden countries. It is, therefore, essential that low-burden countries provide healthcare services to immigrant and refugee families, to assure that their children can receive proper testing, evaluation, and treatment for TB. Active case-finding through contact tracing is a critical element of TB prevention in children and in finding TB disease at an early, easily treated stage. Passive case-finding by evaluating an ill child is often delayed, as other, more common infections and conditions are suspected initially. While high-quality laboratory services to detect Mycobacterium tuberculosis are generally available, they are often underutilized in the diagnosis of childhood TB, further delaying diagnosis in some cases. Performing research on TB disease is difficult because of the low number of cases that are spread over many locales, but critical research on the evaluation and treatment of TB infection has been an important legacy of low-burden countries. The continued education of medical providers and the involvement of educational, professional, and non-governmental organizations is a key element of maintaining awareness of the presence of TB. This article provides the perspective from North America and Western Europe but is relevant to many low-endemic settings. TB in children and adolescents will persist in low-burden countries as long as it persists throughout the rest of the world, and these wealthy countries must increase their financial commitment to end TB everywhere.

Objective: The Pediatric and Neonatal Working group developed new ventilator associated events (VAE) definitions for children and neonates. VAE includes ventilator-associated condition (VAC), infection-related ventilator-associated complication (IVAC), and ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP). Acute kidney injury (AKI) and fluid overload (FO) have been associated with worse clinical outcomes of ventilated children. Fluid Overload and Kidney Injury Score (FOKIS) is an automatically calculated score that combines AKI and FO in one numeric quantifiable metric. This study analyzed the association between FOKIS and VAE.Design: Retrospective matched case control study.Setting: A freestanding children's hospital.Patients: A total of 168 who were ventilated > 2 days.Interventions: None.Measurements and Main Results: We identified 42 VAC cases (18 IVAC and 24 non-infection-related VAC cases). Controls were matched to cases for age, immunocompromised status and ventilator days prior to VAC. VAC cases had longer ICU days, median (IQR), 28.5 (15, 47) vs. controls 11 (6, 16), p < 0.001; longer ventilation days, 19.5 (13, 32) vs. 9 (4,13), p < 0.001; and higher hospital mortality, 45.2 vs. 18%, p < 0.001. VACs had a higher incidence of AKI, 85.7 vs. 47.3%, p < 0.001; higher peak daily FO% within 3 days preceding VAC, mean (SD), 8.1(7.8) vs. 4.1 (3.4), p < 0.005; and higher peak FOKIS, 6.4(3.8) vs. 3.7(2.8), (p < 0.001). Multivariate regression model adjusted for severity of illness identified peak FOKIS (odds ratio [OR] 1.29, 95%CI: 1.14–1.48, p < 0.001) and peak inspiratory pressure (OR 1.08, 95%CI: 1.02–1.15, p = 0.007) as risk factors for VAC.Conclusions: The FOKIS and its clinical variables were associated risk factors for ventilator-associated events. Further studies will determine the utility of FOKIS as a predictor for VAEs.

There are striking similarities between the dual pandemics of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR TB) and multidrug-resistant Gram negative bacilli (MDR GNB) despite fundamental differences in the pathogenesis and epidemiology of these pathogens. In this perspective, we highlight several strategies that have been used by the global TB community to address the MDR TB problem, including approaches to: encourage appropriate use of anti-TB medications, enhance appropriate utilization of molecular diagnostic testing, facilitate development of new antimicrobial agents, and strengthen surveillance systems and infection control practices. Understanding the successes and challenges of these strategies for MDR TB control will be instructive for efforts to curb emergence and spread of MDR GNB. Keywords: Multidrug-resistant, MDR, Tuberculosis, TB, Gram negative bacilli, GNB