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The Epidemiology, Diagnosis and Treatment of Mycobacteria Infection (including TB and NTM)

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A special issue of Tropical Medicine and Infectious Disease (ISSN 2414-6366). This special issue belongs to the section "Infectious Diseases".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 3 June 2024 | Viewed by 8057

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Qin Sun

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Guest Editor

Shanghai Clinical Research Center for Infectious Disease (Tuberculosis), Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital, Tongji University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
Interests: mycobacterium tuberculosis; nontuberculous mycobacteria; diagnosis; treatment; pathogenesis

Prof. Dr. Wei Sha

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Guest Editor

Shanghai Clinical Research Center for Infectious Disease (Tuberculosis), Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital, Tongji University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
Interests: nontuberculous mycobacteria; tuberculosis; pulmonary; immunotherapy; diagnosis; treatment

Dr. Jing Bao

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Guest Editor

1. China Infectious Diseases Clinical Center, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
2. Shanghai HealthCare Capital, Shanghai, China
Interests: cancer; HIV/AIDS; tuberculosis; infectious diseases

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Tuberculosis (TB) is an ancient disease with a history of 4000 years. In 1882, Robert Koch, a scientist from Germany, discovered Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) for the first time. For more than a century since then, attempts have been made to eliminate this disease. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has influenced the control of tuberculosis, which may lead to a 5–8 years of retrogression. Meanwhile, the detection of nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) has increased because of the increased prevalence of diseases that cause immunodeficiency, such as HIV/AIDS; the increased use of immunosuppressive agents or hormones; and improvements in bacterial identification, such as genetic sequencing. NTM diseases have become one of the important public health problems threatening human health in many geographical regions. In the face of these new challenges from mycobacterium, it is an urgent need for us to have a deeper understanding of mycobacterial diseases, cut off the source of infection, improve diagnostic accuracy, develop more reasonable and effective treatment, reduce the incidence of antibiotic resistance, and so on. To achieve these goals, however, it is pivotal that we all work together.

In this Special Issue, we invite colleagues to submit original research articles and scientific reviews related to diseases caused by mycobacterium including (but not limited to): a. epidemiological characteristics of TB or NTM infection; b. novel diagnostic methods or technologies of TB or NTM; c. new treatment for TB or NTM.

Dr. Qin Sun
Prof. Dr. Wei Sha
Dr. Jing Bao
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Tropical Medicine and Infectious Disease is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

• tuberculosis
• nontuberculous mycobacteria
• diagnosis
• treatment
• epidemiology

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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12 pages, 1104 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Accuracy of Nanopore Sequencing as a Diagnostic Assay for Pulmonary Tuberculosis versus Smear, Culture and Xpert MTB/RIF: A Head-to-Head Comparison

by Juan Yang, Wei Ye, Chao Zhang, Wenhong Lin, Lin Mei, Shengsheng Liu and Jie Liu

Trop. Med. Infect. Dis. 2023, 8(9), 441; https://doi.org/10.3390/tropicalmed8090441 - 08 Sep 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1720

Abstract

Early diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) is pivotal for achieving effective tuberculosis (TB) control. This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of nanopore sequencing of sputum, bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF), and pleural fluid samples for achieving early PTB diagnosis and provided head-to-head comparisons of nanopore sequencing results versus results obtained using smear, culture, and Xpert MTB/RIF assays. Patients admitted from October 2021 to April 2023 were screened for PTB using diagnostic imaging and electronic medical records. A total of 172 patients (129 PTB, 43 non-TB patients) were included in the final analysis after the exclusion of patients who did not meet the study’s inclusion criteria. PTB-positive rates were determined for each assay, and then, assay diagnostic efficacies were compared. The positive MTB-detection rates obtained using nanopore sequencing were 86.8% for all samples, 62.3% for BALF, and 84.6% for pleural fluid, all of which were significantly higher than the corresponding rates obtained using the other three assays. The overall sensitivity rates, specificity rates, and area under the curve (AUC) values obtained from smear testing were 5.4%, 95.3%, and 0.504, respectively, as compared to the respective results obtained via culture (18.6%, 100.0%, and 0.593), Xpert MTB/RIF (26.4%, 97.7%, and 0.620), and nanopore sequencing (85.3%, 95.4%, and 0.903). The diagnostic efficacy of nanopore sequencing surpassed the diagnostic efficacies of smear, culture, and Xpert MTB/RIF assays. Thus, nanopore sequencing holds promise as an alternative to Xpert MTB/RIF for early PTB detection, particularly for the testing of BALF and pleural fluid samples. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Epidemiology, Diagnosis and Treatment of Mycobacteria Infection (including TB and NTM))

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10 pages, 509 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Evaluation of Omnigene-Sputum for Preservation of Sputum Samples for Diagnosis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis

by Edson Mambuque, Belén Saavedra, Barbara Molina-Moya, Dinis Nguenha, Esther García-García, Silvia Blanco, Neide Gomes, Joanna Ehrlich, Helder Bulo, Shilzia Munguambe, Helio Chiconela, Sozinho Acacio, José Domínguez and Alberto L. García-Basteiro

Trop. Med. Infect. Dis. 2023, 8(7), 367; https://doi.org/10.3390/tropicalmed8070367 - 17 Jul 2023

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Abstract

In several low-income countries, the transport of sputa could take up to one week to reach the laboratories, resulting in increased contamination rates and a loss of growth. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of the OMNIgene-SPUTUM in preserving Mycobacterium tuberculosis on sputum samples simulating three hypothetical scenarios for conservation and/or decontamination: (1) sputum was mixed with OMN and conserved at room temperature for five days and then processed for culture (OMN); (2) sputum cultures followed the routine standing operating procedure at day 0 (STD); and (3) sputum samples were kept at room temperature for five days and mixed with the standard decontamination reagent (SDT5) and then processed for culture. The positivity rate based on smear microscopy was 36.4%, 29.1%, and 27.3% for STD, STD5, and OMN, respectively. The proportion of positive results by liquid culture (MGIT) was 39.1% (43/110) for STD, 26.4% (29/110) for STD5, and 20.0% for OMN (22/110). The overall concordance of liquid culture results was 51.8% (57/110): 37.3% (41/110) for negative results, 11.8% (13/110) for MTBC growth, and 2.7% (3/110) for contaminated results. The OMN arm showed better performance in solid culture than in liquid culture, with a notable reduction in contaminated results. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Epidemiology, Diagnosis and Treatment of Mycobacteria Infection (including TB and NTM))

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12 pages, 2683 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceArticle

Clinical Features of Nontuberculous Mycobacterial Pulmonary Disease in the Yangtze River Delta of China: A Single-Center, Retrospective, Observational Study

by Hai Lou, Ansheng Zou, Xiaona Shen, Yong Fang, Qin Sun, Fen Zhang and Wei Sha

Trop. Med. Infect. Dis. 2023, 8(1), 50; https://doi.org/10.3390/tropicalmed8010050 - 09 Jan 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2574

Abstract

With increased focus on nontuberculous mycobacterial pulmonary disease (NTM-PD), and the improvement in detection methods, the global incidence continues to increase every year, but the diagnosis and treatment are difficult with a high misdiagnosis rate and poor curative effect. This study aimed to analyze the clinical indicators of different pathogenic NTM in the Yangtze River Delta. The study retrospectively analyzed the medical records of patients with NTM-PD, who resided in the Yangtze River Delta and were diagnosed using sputum or bronchial lavage fluid and hospitalized in Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital from March 2017 to February 2019. The clinical data of confirmed patients were collected. Among the 513 cases of NTM-PD, 482 cases were infected by four common bacteria: Mycobacterium intracellulare (224, 46.5%), M. abscessus (138, 28.6%), M. kansasii (84, 17.4%), and M. avium (36, 7.5%). The analysis found that different NTM strains have their corresponding positive and negative correlation factors (p < 0.05). M. intracellulare, M. abscessus, M. kansasii, and M. avium were the main pathogenic bacteria isolated from patients with NTM-PD in the Yangtze River Delta were. Different strains resulted in different clinical features, assisting in the early diagnosis and treatment of NTM-PD. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Epidemiology, Diagnosis and Treatment of Mycobacteria Infection (including TB and NTM))

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9 pages, 1173 KiB

Open AccessBrief Report

The Prevalence of Self-Reported Tuberculosis in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India: Evidence from the NFHS-IV and V

by Kannan Thiruvengadam, Rajendran Krishnan and Malaisamy Muniyandi

Trop. Med. Infect. Dis. 2023, 8(10), 464; https://doi.org/10.3390/tropicalmed8100464 - 03 Oct 2023

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Abstract

Introduction: Since 1992, many rounds of the National Family Health Surveys have produced a significant quantity of data in India. The magnitude of the tuberculosis (TB) burden in Andaman and Nicobar Island can be better understood with this data. The household-level information on self-reported TB may provide useful information on the prevalence and distribution of TB as well as care-seeking behaviour. The primary objective is to analyse the data from the NFHS-IV and NFHS-V to understand the prevalence of self-reported TB as well as healthcare-seeking patterns for TB in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Methodology: We performed secondary data analysis of NFHS-IV and NFHS-V data. After taking into consideration the survey’s cluster design and sampling weights, the prevalence was estimated. The association of identified factors with self-reported TB was investigated using the chi-square and logistic regression models. Results: The point prevalence of self-reported TB was 615 (418, 873) and 221 (122, 367) in the NFHS-IV and NFHS-V, respectively (p = 0.012). The elderly, those from rural areas, those belonging to a tribe, and those with a poor wealth index were more likely to report TB. Self-reported TB prevalence was higher in the Nicobar district. There is an increase in a significant proportion of individuals not seeking care. Conclusion: The NFHS-IV and NFHS-V show a decline in self-reported TB, which is consistent with national estimates. However, the enhanced TB case detection in individuals at high risk of TB among the Nicobar districts and tribal communities could significantly contribute to the fight against tuberculosis. Improved awareness of TB could improve care seeking for TB. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Epidemiology, Diagnosis and Treatment of Mycobacteria Infection (including TB and NTM))

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