Tuberculosis in Special Populations: Epidemiology and Evidence-Based Interventions

A special issue of Tropical Medicine and Infectious Disease (ISSN 2414-6366). This special issue belongs to the section "Infectious Diseases".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2025 | Viewed by 797

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Public Health Policy, Wolfson Institute of Population Health, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London, London EC1M 6BQ, UK
Interests: emerging infectious diseases; infection prevention and control; climate change and vector borne diseases; HIV; viral Hepatitis; sexually transmitted diseases; tuberculosis; global health
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Public Health Policy, Wolfson Institute of Population Health, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London, London EC1M 6BQ, UK
Interests: tuberculosis; global health
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Tuberculosis (TB) continues to be a global public health emergency, with 10.8 million people reported with having TB disease and 1.25 million lives being lost in 2023 (global tuberculosis report 2024, World Health Organization 2024).

Despite progress, the world is not in track to end TB by 2030. While TB can affect anyone, special populations are more vulnerable to TB infection and disease. Special populations include children, people living with HIV, those suffering from malnutrition or diabetes mellitus, migrants, miners, prisoners and pregnant women, among others.

This Special Edition aims to provide a state-of-the-art summary of global knowledge on  epidemiology and evidence-based interventions which have successfully served special populations and revamped efforts to end TB. We encourage the submission of papers from national programmes, communities affected by TB, researchers, scientists, public health practicitioners, clinicians and global health and laboratory experts.

Dr. Masoud Dara
Dr. Dominik Zenner
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • tuberculosis
  • migrants
  • prisoners
  • children
  • miners
  • vulnerable groups
  • key populations
  • HIV
  • drug resistance

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

17 pages, 619 KiB  
Article
Incidence, Disease Spectrum, and Outcomes of Tuberculous Meningitis in South African Children: The Initial Impact of COVID-19
by Victoria E. Namukuta, Mariette Smith, Danite Bester, Magriet van Niekerk, Regan Solomons, Ronald van Toorn, Hendrik Simon Schaaf, James A. Seddon, Helena Rabie, Mary-Ann Davies, Anneke C. Hesseling and Karen du Preez
Trop. Med. Infect. Dis. 2025, 10(5), 127; https://doi.org/10.3390/tropicalmed10050127 - 7 May 2025
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Abstract
Tuberculous meningitis (TBM) is a very severe form of childhood tuberculosis (TB), requiring hospitalisation for diagnosis. We investigated trends in admission, disease spectrum, outcomes, and healthcare system factors in children with TBM managed at a tertiary referral hospital in Cape Town, South Africa. [...] Read more.
Tuberculous meningitis (TBM) is a very severe form of childhood tuberculosis (TB), requiring hospitalisation for diagnosis. We investigated trends in admission, disease spectrum, outcomes, and healthcare system factors in children with TBM managed at a tertiary referral hospital in Cape Town, South Africa. We conducted a retrospective cohort study of children (<13 years) with TBM admitted from 2017 to 2021. An innovative surveillance algorithm was used to identify all possible TBM episodes using integrated electronic health data. Episodes were clinically verified and data were extracted using medical records. A total of 263 children (median age 2.2 years; IQR: 1.1–5.1), 17 (6.5%) living with HIV were admitted with TBM during 2017 to 2021. There was a significant reduction in TBM admissions during the COVID-19 pandemic (IRR: 0.57, 95% CI:0.39–0.84), particularly in children < 2 years (IRR: 0.31, 95% CI: 0.15–0.62). BCG vaccination was documented in 137/263 (52.1%) and 10/87 (11.5%) eligible children who initiated TB preventive therapy. During the pandemic, children with TBM were significantly more likely to be living with HIV (aOR: 4.01, 95% CI: 1.39–11.62). COVID-19 was associated with a significant reduction in the number of young children admitted with TBM. Many missed opportunities to prevent TBM were identified regardless of COVID-19. Paediatric TBM surveillance is a useful marker to monitor epidemiological trends. Full article
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