Public Health Impact and Cost-Effectiveness of Screening for Active Tuberculosis Disease or Infection Among Children in South Africa.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Although tuberculosis disease is a leading cause of global childhood mortality, there remain major gaps in diagnosis, treatment, and prevention in children because tuberculosis control programs rely predominantly on presentation of symptomatic children or contact tracing. We assessed the public health impact and cost-effectiveness of age-based routine screening and contact tracing in children in South Africa.

Methods

We used a deterministic mathematical model to evaluate age-based routine screening in 1-year increments from ages 0 to 5 years, with and without contact tracing and preventive treatment. Screening incorporated symptom history and tuberculin skin testing, with chest x-ray and GeneXpert Ultra for confirmatory testing. We projected tuberculosis cases, de

SUBMITTER: Brough J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10686943 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature