Transforming the fight against tuberculosis: Targeting catalysts of transmission

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

26 Scopus citations

Abstract

The global tuberculosis control community has committed itself to ambitious 10-year targets. To meet these targets, biomedical advances alone will be insufficient; a more targeted public health tuberculosis strategy is also needed. We highlight the role of "tuberculosis transmission catalysts," defined as variabilities in human behavior, bacillary properties, and host physiology that fuel the propagation of active tuberculosis at the local level. These catalysts can be categorized as factors that increase contact rates, infectiousness, or host susceptibility. Different catalysts predominate in different epidemiological and sociopolitical settings, and public health approaches are likely to succeed only if they are tailored to target the major catalysts driving transmission in the corresponding community. We argue that global tuberculosis policy should move from a country-level focus to a strategy that prioritizes collection of data on key transmission catalysts at the local level followed by deployment of "catalyst-targeted" interventions, supported by strengthened health systems.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1123-1129
Number of pages7
JournalClinical Infectious Diseases
Volume59
Issue number8
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 15 2014

Keywords

  • Communicable disease control
  • Epidemiology
  • Transmission
  • Tuberculosis

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Microbiology (medical)
  • Infectious Diseases

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