Paper on Transmission of Multidrug-Resistant and Drug-Susceptible Tuberculosis within Households

TANDEM member David Moore from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, together with some colleagues, recently published a paper on the transmission of multidrug-resistant and drug-susceptible Tuberculosis (MDR-TB) within households. With his group, Mr. Moore examined the development of secondary cases over a 3-year period among 1,055 household contacts of 213 MDR-TB patients and 2,362 contacts of 487 TB patients with drug-susceptible strains (Grandjaen et al, PLoS MEd 2015;12:e1001843). With his colleagues, David Moore could also look at many other factors including Diabetes. Interestingly, Diabetes in the index patient was associated with a much lower number of secondary TB cases (adjusted HR 0.2; p=0.016), while those household contacts who had Diabetes were much more likely to develop TB (adjusted HR 5.49; p=0.001). So TB patients with Diabetes may transmit less TB to others, but individuals who are exposed to TB have a 5-fold higher risk to develop TB in this setting in Peru.

Read the full paper here.