Using routinely collected laboratory data to identify high rifampicin-resistant tuberculosis burden communities in the Western Cape Province, South Africa: A retrospective spatiotemporal analysis.

ABSTRACT:

Background

South Africa has the highest tuberculosis incidence globally (781/100,000), with an estimated 4.3% of cases being rifampicin resistant (RR). Control and elimination strategies will require detailed spatial information to understand where drug-resistant tuberculosis exists and why it persists in those communities. We demonstrate a method to enable drug-resistant tuberculosis monitoring by identifying high-burden communities in the Western Cape Province using routinely collected laboratory data.

Methods and findings

We retrospectively identified cases of microbiologically confirmed tuberculosis and RR-tuberculosis from all biological samples submitted for tuberculosis testing (n = 2,219,891) to the Western Cape National Health Laboratory Services (NHLS) between Janu

SUBMITTER: McIntosh AI 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6103505 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature