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September 2018
News and events from the Centre this month

Thank you to everyone who contributed to content for this month’s newsletter.

 
Inside this month’s TB Centre Newsletter: 

  1. Highlight
  2. Events
  3. Courses
  4. North London TB Journal Club
  5. Job opportunities
  6. Funding call
  7. Call for papers
  8. TB Centre members at conferences
  9. Featured publications by TB Centre members

 

Highlight 

Mishal Khan, Deputy Director of the TB Centre, and Liz Corbett will represent us at the United Nations General Assembly high-level meeting on tuberculosis. This is a unique opportunity to draw attention to the work done here at the School but, also, in other institutions in the UK and around the world and make sure that TB is high on the political agenda. Keep an eye out for communications regarding the meeting and our involvement and, if you aren’t following us on twitter, please do so @LSHTM_TB
 

Events

Please note that the mini-retreat, which was scheduled for the 6 November 2018, has been postponed due to a clash. We will update you with the new date as soon as possible.

  • “Does BCG protect infants from severe forms of childhood tuberculosis by trained innate and humoral mechanisms?” The Department of Immunology and Infection invites you to a PhD upgrading seminar on Tuesday 11 September, at 12.30pm. For more information, please click here.
  • The South of England TB Control Board is organising an educational and networking event in Bristol on the 8th October. For more information and to register, please click here.
 

 

Courses

Joint London Advanced TB Course and European Advanced Clinical TB Course 2018

12-14 November 2018

Royal College of Physicians, London

Course Directors: Prof O Kon, Prof G Bothamley and Dr D Kumar

Few places left, for more info please click here
 

 

North London TB Journal Club

North London Tb Journal Club is a monthly journal club that has been running since 2012. It is organised by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University College London, the MRC Clinical Trials Unit, Médicins Sans Frontières’ Manson Unit, The Francis Crick Institute and Queen Mary University of London. Colleagues from associated institutions are more than welcome to participate.

 

Upcoming Dates

October 2018

Chair: Emily Wise

Date and time: Wednesday 10th October, 1-2pm

Venue: UCL (Exact room details to be posted shortly)

Paper: tbc

November 2018

Chair: Robert Wilkinson

Date and time: Tuesday 6th November, 1-2pm

Venue: The Francis Crick Institute

Paper: tbc

December 2018

TBC

 

We are currently looking for a chair to host December’s Journal club. If you are interested, please contact: oshani.dissanayake@nhs.net or naomi.walker@lshtm.ac.uk

For more information on upcoming events and details of venues please visit: https://northlondontb.org/

For queries please contact: oshani.dissanayake@nhs.net
 

 

Job opportunities

There are two consultancy opportunities available. The first one is to support the WHO Global TB Programme with comms during the UN High Level meeting on TB and you can find more details here. The second one is to promote and support the implementation of TB patient cost surveys and you can read more here.
 

 

Funding call

For the first time the Initiative 5% of Expertise France has launched a call on operational research focused entirely on TB. This presents opportunities for OR on prevention and care of TB and MDR-TB in all the 47 eligible countries. Amongst others, projects could look at scalable strategies for testing and treating active and latent TB and the use of innovative shorter regimens for MDR-TB. Total funds available are EUR 4 million, and a single project may be funded up to EUR 1 Million. More details (in French) here and text of call here. Applications are accepted until 26 October and may be written in English.
 

 

Call for papers

The editors of PLOS Medicine announced a special issue on new approaches to alleviate the individual and epidemiological burden of turberculosis. Deadline for research submissions is 9 November 2018 and you can read more here.
 

 

TB Centre members at conferences

Dr Jayne Sutherland will be presenting on “Identification of an Mtb-specific soluble host signature for risk of development of active TB in HIV+ Mtb-exposed contacts” at the 9th EDCTP Forum in Portugal.
 

 

Featured publications by TB Centre members

How affordable is TB care? Findings from a nationwide TB patient cost survey in Ghana.

Pedrazzoli D, Siroka A, Boccia D, Bonsu F, Nartey K, Houben R, Borghi J

Trop Med Int Health. 2018 Aug;23(8):870-878. doi: 10.1111/tmi.13085. Epub 2018 Jun 25.

 

Investigating the impact of TB case-detection strategies and the consequences of false positive diagnosis through mathematical modelling.

Lalli M, Hamilton M, Pretorius C, Pedrazzoli D, White RG, Houben RMGJ.

BMC Infect Dis. 2018 Jul 21;18(1):340. doi: 10.1186/s12879-018-3239-x.

 

Modelling the impact of social protection on tuberculosis: the S-PROTECT project.

Boccia D, Rudgard W, Shrestha S, Lönnroth K, Eckhoff P, Golub J, Sanchez M, Maciel E, Rasella D, Shete P, Pedrazzoli D, Houben R, Chang S, Dowdy D.

BMC Public Health. 2018 Jun 26;18(1):786. doi: 10.1186/s12889-018-5539-x.

 

What if they don’t have tuberculosis? The consequences and trade-offs involved in false-positive diagnoses of tuberculosis.

Houben RMGJ1,2, Lalli M1,2, Kranzer K2,3, Menzies NA4, Schumacher SG5, Dowdy DW6.

Clin Infect Dis. 2018 Jul 5. doi: 10.1093/cid/ciy544. [Epub ahead of print]

 

Prognostic value of interferon-γ release assays and tuberculin skin test in predicting the development of active tuberculosis (UK PREDICT TB): a prospective cohort study

Abubakar I, Drobniewski F, Southern J, Sitch AJ, Jackson C, Lipman M, Deeks JJ, Griffiths C, Bothamley G, Lynn W, Burgess H, Mann B, Imran A, Sridhar S, Tsou CY, Nikolayevskyy V, Rees-Roberts M, Whitworth H, Kon OM, Haldar P, Kunst H, Anderson S, Hayward A, Watson JM, Milburn H, Lalvani A; PREDICT Study Team

Lancet Infect Dis. 2018 Aug 30. pii: S1473-3099(18)30355-4. doi: 10.1016/S1473-3099(18)30355-4. [Epub ahead of print]

 

Daily cough frequency in tuberculosis and association with household infection.

Turner RD, Birring SS, Darmalingam M, Hooper RL, Kunst H, Matos S, Bothamley GH

Int J Tuberc Lung Dis. 2018 Aug 1;22(8):863-870. doi: 10.5588/ijtld.17.0652.

 

QT prolongation and cardiac toxicity of new tuberculosis drugs in Europe: a Tuberculosis Network European Trialsgroup (TBnet) study.

Guglielmetti L, Tiberi S, Burman M, Kunst H, Wejse C, Togonidze T, Bothamley G, Lange C; TBnet; of the TBnet QTc survey.

Eur Respir J. 2018 Aug 16;52(2). pii: 1800537. doi: 10.1183/13993003.00537-2018. Print 2018 Aug.

 

Differential DNA methylation of potassium channel KCa3.1 and immune signalling pathways is associated with infant immune responses following BCG vaccination.

Hasso-Agopsowicz M, Scriba T J,  Hanekom W A, Dockrell H M, Smith, S G

Sci Rep 2018; 8(1):13086 PubMed

 

Cash transfers to enhance TB control: lessons from the HIV response.

Rudgard W E, Carter D J, Scuffell J, Cluver L D, Fraser-Hurt N, Boccia D

BMC Public Health 2018; 18(1):1052 PubMed

 

Should NICE reconsider the 2016 UK guidelines on TB contact tracing? A cost-effectiveness analysis of contact investigations in London

Cavany S M, Vynnycky E, Anderson C S, Maguire H, Sandmann, F.Thomas, H.L.White, R.G.Sumner, T.

Thorax 2018; (): PubMed

 

Heterologous effects of infant BCG vaccination: potential mechanisms of immunity.

Butkeviciute E, Jones C E, Smith S G

Future Microbiol 2018; (): PubMed

 

Evaluation of the diagnostic accuracy of Computer-Aided Detection of tuberculosis on Chest radiography among private sector patients in Pakistan.

Zaidi S M A, Habib S S, Van Ginneken B, Ferrand R A, Creswell J, Khowaja S, Khan A

Sci Rep 2018; 8(1):12339 PubMed

 

Identifying mixed Mycobacterium tuberculosis infections from whole genome sequence data.

Sobkowiak B, Glynn J R, Houben R M G J, Mallard K, Phelan J E, Guerra-Assunção J A, Banda L, Mzembe T, Viveiros M, McNerney R, Parkhill J, Crampin A C, Clark T G

BMC Genomics 2018; 19(1):613 PubMed

 

Factors affecting tuberculosis health message recall 2 years after active case finding in Blantyre, Malawi.

Monk E J M, Kumwenda M, Nliwasa M, Mpunga J, Corbett E L

Int J Tuberc Lung Dis 2018; 22(9):1007-1015 PubMed

 

Cost of point-of-care lateral flow urine lipoarabinomannan antigen testing in HIV-positive adults in South Africa.

Mukora R, Tlali M, Monkwe S, Charalambous S, Karat A S, Fielding K L, Grant A D, Vassall A

Int J Tuberc Lung Dis 2018; 22(9):1082-1087 PubMed

 

Computer-assisted chest radiography reading for tuberculosis screening in people living with diabetes mellitus.

Koesoemadinata R C, Kranzer K, Livia R, Susilawati N, Annisa J, Soetedjo N N M, Ruslami R, Philipsen R, van Ginneken B, Soetikno R D, van Crevel R, Alisjahbana B, Hill P C

Int J Tuberc Lung Dis 2018; 22(9):1088-1094 PubMed

 

Investigating spillover of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis from a prison: a spatial and molecular epidemiological analysis.

Warren J L, Grandjean L, Moore D A J, Lithgow A, Coronel J, Sheen P, Zelner J L, Andrews J R, Cohen T

BMC Med 2018; 16(1):122 PubMed

 

Empirical estimation of resource constraints for use in model-based economic evaluation: an example of TB services in South Africa.

Bozzani F M, Mudzengi D, Sumner T, Gomez G B, Hippner P, Cardenas V, Charalambous S, White R, Vassall A

Cost Eff Resour Alloc 2018; 16():27 PubMed

 

High HIV and active tuberculosis prevalence and increased mortality risk in adults with symptoms of TB: a systematic review and meta-analyses.

Nliwasa M, MacPherson P, Gupta-Wright A, Mwapasa M, Horton K, Odland J Ã, Flach C, Corbett E L

J Int AIDS Soc 2018; 21(7):e25162 PubMed

 

Screening for tuberculosis with Xpert MTB/RIF versus fluorescent microscopy among adults newly diagnosed with HIV in rural Malawi: a cluster randomized trial (CHEPETSA).

Ngwira L G, Corbett E L, Khundi M, Barnes G L, Nkhoma A, Murowa M, Cohn S, Moulton L H, Chaisson R E, Dowdy D W

Clin Infect Dis 2018; (): PubMed

 

The tuberculosis-associated immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome: recent advances in clinical and pathogenesis research.

Walker N F, Stek C, Wasserman S, Wilkinson R J, Meintjes G

Curr Opin HIV AIDS. 2018 Aug 18. doi: 10.1097/COH.0000000000000502. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 30124473
 

 
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