Situation Analysis of Early Implementation of Programmatic Management of Tuberculosis Preventive Treatment among Household Contacts of Pulmonary TB Patients in Delhi, India.

Tuberculosis Preventive Treatment (TPT) is a powerful tool for preventing the TB infection from developing into active TB disease, and has recently been expanded to all household contacts of TB cases in India. This study employs a mixed-methods approach to conduct a situational analysis of the initial phase of TPT implementation among household contacts of pulmonary TB patients in three districts of Delhi, India. It was completed using a checklist based assessments, care cascade data, and qualitative analysis. Our observations indicated that organizational structure and planning were established, but implementation of TPT was suboptimal with issues in drug availability and procurement, budget, human resources, and training. Awareness and motivation, and shorter regimen, telephonic assessment, and collaboration with NGOs emerged as enablers. Apprehension about taking TPT, erratic drug supply, long duration of treatment, side effects, overburden, large population, INH resistance, data entry issues, and private provider reluctance emerged as barriers. The study revealed potential solutions for optimizing TPT implementation. It is evident that, while progress has been made in TPT implementation, there is room for improvement and refinement across various domains.

Correlating clinical breakpoint concentration of moxifloxacin with gyrA mutations using the GenoType MTBDRsl assay Version 2.0.

INTRODUCTION: Widespread use of Fluoroquinolones (FQs) has led to the development of its resistance in clinical isolates of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. However, in Mycobacterium tuberculosis, phenotypic resistance to FQs has been shown to be heterogeneous, ranging from low-level resistance to high-level resistance. This stratification in resistance has important implications for the inclusion of moxifloxacin (Mfx) in the treatment regimen. The World Health Organization recommends the use of GenoType MTBDRsl assay as the initial test for detecting resistance conferring mutations (both high and low) to FQs in patients with confirmed MDR-RR TB. The present study was conducted to explore the relationship of MTBDRsl Version 2.0 detected mutations in gyrA gene and genotypic DST of Mfx at WHO defined Clinical Breakpoint (CB). MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 200 sputum samples from Confirmed MDR/RR TB patients were included in this study. All of these samples had mutations conferring resistance to FQ confirmed by GenoType MTBDRsl assay. These samples were further subjected to Phenotypic DST against moxifloxacin using the Bactec MGIT-960 system. RESULTS: All of the 200 representative FQ resistant isolates had mutations in gyrA gene only with no detectable mutation in gyrB gene. 109 (54.5%) of the isolates had mutations associated with high-level increase in MIC while 91 (45.5%) isolates had mutations associated with low-level increase in MIC. Phenotypic DST of these 200 isolates against Mfx at CB (1.0µg/ml) revealed that of the 109 isolates with mutations associated with high-level increase in MIC and expected to be resistant at CB, only 34 (31.2%) were resistant and the remaining 75 (68.8%) were sensitive. CONCLUSION: Moxifloxacin is an important drug in the regimen for treating Drug-resistant TB and the decision to exclude this drug from the regimen should not be taken merely on the basis of mutational patterns. It should rather be taken after considering the combined results of mutational analysis and phenotypic DST.

Effectiveness of Xpert MTB/RIF for the diagnosis of extrapulmonary tuberculosis at various stand-alone laboratories in Delhi.

BACKGROUND: Globally, EPTB accounts for 15% of the notified incident TB cases. Laboratory confirmation of EPTB is challenging and majority of the cases remain undetected for a longer time. A major breakthrough in the diagnosis of EPTB was the introduction of nucleic acid amplification tests (NAAT). One such test-the Xpert MTB/RIF assay also known as Cartridge based nucleic acid amplification test (CBNAAT) was endorsed by the Scientific and Technical Advisory Board of the WHO for the diagnosis of Tuberculosis. The present study was conduct to evaluate the outcome of various extrapulmonary samples tested in the year 2019 at different standalone NAAT laboratories in Delhi. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 20,238 samples consisting mainly of Pus (21.77%), Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) (14.96%), Biopsies (13.87%), Pleural fluid (10.49%), Lymph node aspirations (FNAC aspirates) (6.75%), synovial fluid (0.54%) and gastric aspirates (26.4%) tested at 22 standalone NAAT laboratories were included in this study. RESULTS: Mycobacterium tuberculosis was detected in 3496 samples and resistance to rifampicin was detected in 329 of the samples. The overall yield of all the specimens combined was 17.2%. Highest yield was seen in Lymph nodes aspirates (FNAC) (36.0%), followed by pus (35.4%), tissues (15.7%), synovial fluid (13.5%), Endometrial tissues (10.7%), Pleural fluid (9.5%), Gastric aspirates (9.4%) and CSF (6.5%). The lowest yield was seen in Cavitary fluids (6.2%). CONCLUSION: The results of this study highlight the usefulness of Xpert MTB/RIF assay in the diagnosis of EPTB. In particular, this assay proved to be of great utility while testing pus samples, tissue samples and lymph node FNACs.