Household Contact Tracing With Intensified Tuberculosis and Human Immunodeficiency Virus Screening in South Africa: A Cluster-Randomized Trial

Martinson, Neil A, Lebina, Limakatso, Webb, Emily L, Ratsela, Andrew, Varavia, Ebrahim, Kinghorn, Anthony, Lala, Sanjay G, Golub, Jonathan E, Bosch, Zama, Motsomi, Kegaugetswe P and MacPherson, Peter ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0329-9613 (2021) 'Household Contact Tracing With Intensified Tuberculosis and Human Immunodeficiency Virus Screening in South Africa: A Cluster-Randomized Trial'. Clinical Infectious Diseases, Vol 75, Issue 5, pp. 849-856.

Preview

Text Clin_Inf_Dis_ciab1047_inpress.pdf - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. Download (359kB) | Preview

Abstract

Background
Household contact tracing for tuberculosis (TB) may facilitate diagnosis and access to TB preventive treatment (TPT). We investigated whether household contact tracing and intensive TB/human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) screening would improve TB-free survival.
Methods
Household contacts of index TB patients in 2 South African provinces were randomized to home tracing and intensive HIV/TB screening or standard of care (SOC; clinic referral letters). The primary outcome was incident TB or death at 15 months. Secondary outcomes included tuberculin skin test (TST) positivity in children ≤14 years and undiagnosed HIV.
Results
From December 2016 through March 2019, 1032 index patients (4459 contacts) and 1030 (4129 contacts) were randomized to the intervention and SOC arms. Of intervention arm contacts, 3.2% (69 of 2166) had prevalent microbiologically confirmed TB. At 15 months, the cumulative incidence of TB or death did not differ between the intensive screening (93 of 3230, 2.9%) and SOC (80 of 2600, 3.1%) arms (hazard ratio, 0.90; 95% confidence interval [CI], .66–1.24). TST positivity was higher in the intensive screening arm (38 of 845, 4.5%) compared with the SOC arm (15 of 800, 1.9%; odds ratio, 2.25; 95% CI, 1.07–4.72). Undiagnosed HIV was similar between arms (41 of 3185, 1.3% vs 32 of 2543, 1.3%; odds ratio, 1.02; 95% CI, .64–1.64). Conclusions
Household contact tracing with intensive screening and referral did not reduce incident TB or death. Providing referral letters to household contacts of index patients is an alternative strategy to home visits. Clinical Trials Registration ISRCTN16006202.

Item Type:	Article
Subjects:	WC Communicable Diseases > Virus Diseases > Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome. HIV Infections > WC 503 Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. HIV infections WC Communicable Diseases > Virus Diseases > Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome. HIV Infections > WC 503.3 Etiology. Transmission WF Respiratory System > Tuberculosis > WF 200 Tuberculosis (General) WF Respiratory System > Tuberculosis > WF 205 Epidemiology
Faculty: Department:	Clinical Sciences & International Health > Malawi-Liverpool-Wellcome Programme (MLW)
Digital Object Identifer (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciab1047
SWORD Depositor:	JISC Pubrouter
Depositing User:	JISC Pubrouter
Date Deposited:	28 Mar 2022 11:19
Last Modified:	16 Jun 2023 08:52
URI:	https://archive.lstmed.ac.uk/id/eprint/19989

Statistics

View details

Actions (login required)

Edit Item