Active clinical trials for "Latent Tuberculosis"

Background: - Lymphatic filariasis is an infection that is caused by small, thread-like worms. It is spread by mosquitoes, and causes fever, chills, and headaches. If untreated, it can also cause elephantiasis, a condition that leads to swelling of the arms, legs, breasts, and scrotum. Treatment can eliminate the worms from the blood and reduce the risk of developing elephantiasis. Researchers want to study people with latent tuberculosis (TB) who may or may not be infected with filariasis. This study will look at the way that people with latent TB fight infection with these worms. Objectives: - To study how the immune systems of people with latent TB react to filarial infection. Eligibility: - Individuals between 18 and 65 years of age who have latent TB and may or may not have filarial infection. Design: Participants will be screened with a physical exam and medical history. They will provide a blood and stool sample to test for infection. Participants who do not have lymphatic filariasis but have another kind of intestinal worm will be treated for the parasite. This will be their last study visit. Participants who have latent TB and lymphatic filariasis will be treated with the standard treatment for the disease. They will come back for a second visit 6 months later, and will provide another blood sample.

The objective of this study is to assess the efficacy of the two current TB (tuberculosis) blood tests (Interferon Gamma Release Assays (IGRA)) compared with the standard skin test (Mantoux Tuberculin Skin Test (TST)), for predicting active tuberculosis among those at increased risk of TB. Those at increased risk are defined as either newly arrived immigrants or people who have been in contact with TB cases. The study will also provide information on the cost effectiveness of different testing strategies, such as the two step testing approach recommended by NICE. The study is to be funded by the NIHR Health Technology Assessment programme. 10,000 participants will be recruited from 12 hospitals and a network of GP surgeries in London. All participants will have the skin test and blood taken for both assays. Disease status of participants will then be followed up for an average of 24 months using the national register of clinical reports, a phone call and the national microbiological database. The risk of developing active disease is highest in the first two years after exposure. During followup there will be no additional diagnostic procedures unless symptoms occur, i.e. in line with current NICE policy. A sub group of patients, selected as a random 25% of participants, will have a repeat IGRA test shortly after the first test to investigate whether the skin test affects the result of the blood test.

Latent Tuberculosis infection (LTBI) guidelines can be complex. LTBI-ASSIST is a web-based interactive tool to navigate US LTBI clinical practice guidelines in a patient-centered format that may guide clinical decision making around Latent TB care. The research goal is to determine the difference in reported confidence among trainees that are not experts in LTBI care. The investigators further aim to assess if access to the LTBI-ASSIST tool improves clinical decision making in a series of simulated case scenarios containing guideline-derived, multiple choice items, as well as assess the efficiency in navigating the scenarios - measured by time to complete the survey. The investigators proposed a randomized study design, in which an electronic survey/questionnaire with 4 case scenarios consisting of 14 multiple choice questions. Participants providing informed consent will be randomized to receiving access to either US Centers for Disease Control (CDC)/National Tuberculosis (TB) Controllers Association (NTCA) Guidelines or the LTBI-ASSIST online tool. Those in the experimental arm will further complete a 10 question System Usability Scale to assess usability of the LTBI-ASSIST tool. All Johns Hopkins medical trainees and residents will be eligible to participate.

Tuberculosis (TB) is the leading cause of death by infectious disease in the world, responsible for 1.6 million deaths in 2017. The treatment of active TB requires at least a 6-month combined antibiotic regimen and can cause heavy side effects. As a consequence, treatment adherence is not optimal, particularly in primary care settings. Rapid and reliable monitoring of anti-TB treatment adherence and efficacy is critical to provide adequate patient care and curb relapse episodes and acquired drug resistance. Investigators propose to evaluate the performance in terms of diagnosis accuracy and outcome prediction of four new biomarkers of active TB: 1) a double IGRA (Interferon Gamma Release Assay) including QuantiFERON-Gold Plus® and HBHA; 2) a whole blood transcriptomic analysis of mRNA (messenger Ribonucleic acid) expression of a panel of 150 genes; 3) a whole blood proteomic analysis; 4) an ex vivo immunophenotyping using flow and mass cytometry to characterize the lymphocyte populations.

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) remains the most important infectious disease in the world. Keys to successful control of TB is rapid diagnosis, prompt treatment, as well as effective preventive therapy for contacts with latent TB infection (LTBI). Current methods for the diagnosis of LTBI are tuberculin skin test (TST) and interferon-gamma release assay (IGRA). For preventive therapy, the recommended regimens include daily isoniazid for 9 months and daily rifampicin for 4 months. By incorporating long-acting rifapentine, a new regimen combining weekly rifapentine and high-dose isoniazid for a total of 12 doses has been proven of equal potency and toxicity. However, the treatment completion rate is much higher in weekly treatment for 3 months than daily treatment for 9 months. It is reasonable that using rifapentine-based preventive therapy can markedly increase the completion rate. However, study is lacking, especially in Asia, the high endemic area of TB. With the effort of all health care workers and public health personnel, the incidence of TB in Taiwan has gradually declined in recent 10 years. In order to maintain the trend of decreasing in incidence, preventive therapy for LTBI become more and more important. However, which is the best preventive regimen for LTBI is still unknown. Therefore, we conduct the prospective randomized multicenter studies to compare the treatment completion rate of two regimens in Taiwan. The first regimen is daily isoniazid for 9 months. The second is weekly rifapentine plus high-dose isoniazid for 3 months.

Determine if investigational products and reference standard produce similar responses.

Maternal infections affect the basal immune status of neonates. One of the possible mechanism is the fetomaternal microchimerism, in which some cells and active substances are exchanged bi-directionally between maternal and fetal circulation through placenta. Even in the absence of a direct (vertical) transmission of pathogens to fetuses, certain infections make the neonates more prone to allergies and some adverse events of early vaccinations. We postulate that the basal immune status of neonates born to HIV and LTBI infected mothers is primed by gestational exposure to immunological active molecules, which could results in an altered response to early BCG vaccination. Transcripts expression identified by RNA sequencing are compared between sets of mother-child and their respective umbilical cord blood, and between groups of infected and non-infected pairs.

This qualitative study is designed to elicit the perspectives of relevant stakeholders to adapt a community-based TB/HIV intervention aimed on providing home-based TB prevention treatment (TPT) initiation for child TB contacts, to design its implementation strategy and, post intervention, to assess lessons learned for future scale up. Participants will include policy makers and health system managers, nurse and physician providers, community health team members, and child caregivers of TB-exposed children. Stakeholders will be asked to participate in two interviews, one prior to the cluster randomized trial assessing this intervention and one after the cluster randomized trial. Trained interviewers will conduct 1-hour semi-structured in-depth interviews that will be audio-recorded, translated and transcribed for thematic analysis using a priori and emergent domains of interest. Free-listing, ranking exercises and cultural consensus will be used to identify context-specific intervention adaptations and implementation strategies.

Introduction: childhood tuberculosis continues to be a major public health problem, despite the fact that the visibility of the epidemic in this population group has increased, studies are still lacking that can resolve the gaps that persist. Objective: To design, implement and evaluate an integrated care strategy for children under five years old household contacts of patients with smear positive pulmonary tuberculosis in Medellín and the Metropolitan Area. Methodology: quasi-experimental study, in which around 300 children household contacts of patients with smear positive pulmonary tuberculosis from Medellín and the Metropolitan Area will be evaluated, who will be recruited in a period of one year. A subgroup of these children, estimated at 85, who require treatment for latent tuberculosis, will be offered to receive treatment for latent tuberculosis under a integrated care strategy that includes some modifications to the currently standardized scheme in Colombia, with rifampicin treatment daily oral route for four months, follow-up under the project scheme with the availability of a nurse, general practitioner, specialists, care by professionals from other disciplines such as social work, psychology, and nutritionist, and the provision of incentives (transport and food assistance). This strategy will be compared with isoniazid treatment according to the standardized scheme in the country, which was received by a cohort of children between 2015 and 2018. The study has the CIB Research Ethics Committee approval. Expected results: this project is expected to contribute with greater local evidence of integrated care strategies that allow greater compliance with treatment for latent tuberculosis in children, so that there is a real impact in the control of childhood tuberculosis and in the reduction of tuberculosis reservoirs in order to achieve the goals proposed by the World Health Organization's End TB Strategy.

Though still an endemic area, the incidence of tuberculosis (TB) in Taiwan is decreasing in recent years. Further reduction in TB incidence, or even elimination should rely on treatment for LTBI. However, which is the cost-effective screening method or what is the cost-effective regimen in Taiwan is still unclear. Therefore, the investigators designed this prospective study to follow up adult household contacts with LTBI for 2 years and compare the efficacy of 9-month isoniazid and 4-month rifampicin).