Gaps in TB-related knowledge and practices: An assessment of health care seeking behavior among adults with HIV and caregivers of paediatric patients with presumptive TB symptoms in Manhiça district, southern Mozambique.

Although tuberculosis is a preventable and treatable disease, its management has been challenging for tuberculosis control and prevention programs in low- and middle- income countries such as Mozambique. We assessed the TB knowledge and healthcare-seeking behaviors among adults with HIV and caregivers of paediatric patients with symptoms of TB. The study was conducted between February and October 2023 at Manhiça District Hospital.

Solution spillover: Pairing issues with ideological solutions fuels polarization.

Recent research has focused on understanding ideological and affective political polarization in the United States; however, the polarization of issue salience-defined as personal beliefs about how important or concerning an issue is, and how much attention or priority it deserves-has garnered less attention, especially regarding its underlying causes. We propose that issue salience polarization, particularly that of ideologically neutral issues, is driven in part by two psychological processes: solution aversion (denying problem severity when solutions are introduced that conflict with political beliefs) and solution attraction (exaggerating problem severity when solutions are introduced that align with political beliefs). If this is so, we should be able to observe issues that are nonpolarized at baseline become suddenly polarized when paired with solutions that are consistent with a specific ideological position (liberal or conservative).

Stool-Based Molecular Tuberculosis Treatment Monitoring: A Faster Means for Detecting Persistent Mycobacteria Compared to Phenotypic Culture.

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) treatment monitoring is hindered by the lack of a rapidly measured biomarker that accurately predicts clinically relevant outcomes. Symptom screening poorly correlates with bacillary burden. Although culture is a direct measure of viable bacillary burden, the long turnaround time makes it clinically irrelevant.

Xpert MTB/RIF Ultra assay for pulmonary tuberculosis and rifampicin resistance in adults and adolescents.

Background: Xpert MTB/RIF Ultra (Xpert Ultra) is a molecular World Health Organization (WHO)-recommended rapid diagnostic test that simultaneously detects tuberculosis and rifampicin resistance. This review updates a comparative accuracy Cochrane review of Xpert MTB/RIF and Xpert Ultra as Xpert Ultra has replaced Xpert MTB/RIF.

Objectives: To determine the diagnostic accuracy of Xpert MTB/RIF Ultra (Xpert Ultra) for detecting pulmonary tuberculosis and rifampicin resistance in adults and adolescents with presumptive tuberculosis based on signs or symptoms or with an abnormal chest x-ray suggestive of tuberculosis.