Prevalence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in sputum and reported symptoms among clinic attendees compared to a community survey in rural South Africa
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Date
2022-01-12
Citation
Govender, I., Karat, A.S., Olivier, S., Baisley, K., Beckwith, P., Dayi, N., Dreyer, J., Gareta, D., Gunda, R., Kielmann, K., Koole, O., Mhlongo, N., Modise, T., Moodley, S., Mpofana, X., Ndung’u, T., Pillay, D., Siedner, M.J., Smit, T., Surujdeen, A., Wong, E.B. and Grant, A.D. (2022) ‘Prevalence of mycobacterium tuberculosis in sputum and reported symptoms among clinic attendees compared with a community survey in rural south africa’, Clinical Infectious Diseases, 75(2), pp. 314–322. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciab970.
Abstract
Background Tuberculosis (TB) case finding efforts typically target symptomatic people attending health facilities. We compared the prevalence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) sputum culture-positivity among adult clinic attendees in rural South Africa with a concurrent, community-based estimate from the surrounding demographic surveillance area (DSA). Methods Clinic: Randomly-selected adults (≥18 years) attending two primary healthcare clinics were interviewed and requested to give sputum for mycobacterial culture. HIV and antiretroviral therapy (ART) status were based on self-report and record review. Community: All adult (≥15 years) DSA residents were invited to a mobile clinic for health screening, including serological HIV testing; those with ≥1 TB symptom (cough, weight loss, night sweats, fever) or abnormal chest radiograph were asked for sputum. Results Clinic: 2,055 patients were enrolled (76.9% female, median age 36 years); 1,479 (72.0%) were classified HIV-positive (98.9% on ART) and 131 (6.4%) reported ≥1 TB symptom. Of 20/2,055 (1.0% [95% CI 0.6–1.5]) with Mtb culture-positive sputum, 14 (70%) reported no symptoms. Community: 10,320 residents were enrolled (68.3% female, median age 38 years); 3,105 (30.3%) tested HIV-positive (87.4% on ART) and 1,091 (10.6%) reported ≥1 TB symptom. Of 58/10,320 (0.6% [95% CI 0.4–0.7]) with Mtb culture-positive sputum, 45 (77.6%) reported no symptoms. In both surveys, sputum culture positivity was associated with male sex and reporting >1 TB symptom. Conclusions In both clinic and community settings, most participants with Mtb culture-positive sputum were asymptomatic. TB screening based only on symptoms will miss many people with active disease in both settings.
A correction has been published: Clinical Infectious Diseases, ciac244, https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciac244 An error appeared in the corrected proof publication of this article [Govender I, Karat AS, Olivier S, et al. Prevalence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Sputum and Reported Symptoms Among Clinic Attendees Compared With a Community Survey in Rural South Africa. Clin Infect Dis https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciab970]. The last line of the Financial support section currently states “The community survey was supported by the Wellcome Trust via a strategic award to AHRI (grant number 201433/Z/16/Z)”. The sentence should state “The community survey was supported by the Wellcome Trust via a strategic award to AHRI (grant number 201433/Z/16/A)”. The author regrets this error. © The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press for the Infectious Diseases Society of America.
A correction has been published: Clinical Infectious Diseases, ciac244, https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciac244 An error appeared in the corrected proof publication of this article [Govender I, Karat AS, Olivier S, et al. Prevalence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Sputum and Reported Symptoms Among Clinic Attendees Compared With a Community Survey in Rural South Africa. Clin Infect Dis https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciab970]. The last line of the Financial support section currently states “The community survey was supported by the Wellcome Trust via a strategic award to AHRI (grant number 201433/Z/16/Z)”. The sentence should state “The community survey was supported by the Wellcome Trust via a strategic award to AHRI (grant number 201433/Z/16/A)”. The author regrets this error. © The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press for the Infectious Diseases Society of America.