What We Know About Tuberculosis Transmission: An Overview

Abstract Tuberculosis remains a global health problem with an enormous burden of disease, estimated at 10.4 million new cases in 2015. To stop the tuberculosis epidemic, it is critical that we interrupt tuberculosis transmission. Further, the interventions required to interrupt tuberculosis transmission must be targeted to high-risk groups and settings. A simple cascade for tuberculosis transmission has been proposed in which (1) a source case of tuberculosis (2) generates infectious particles (3) that survive in the air and (4) are inhaled by a susceptible individual (5) who may become infected and (6) then has the potential to develop tuberculosis. Interventions that target these events will interrupt tuberculosis transmission and accelerate the decline in tuberculosis incidence and mortality. The purpose of this article is to provide a high-level overview of what is known about tuberculosis transmission, using the tuberculosis transmission cascade as a framework, and to set the scene for the articles in this series, which address specific aspects of tuberculosis transmission.

[1]  N. Rendleman.  Mandated tuberculosis screening in a community of homeless people. , 1999, American journal of preventive medicine.

[2]  R. Chaisson,et al.  Controlling the seedbeds of tuberculosis: diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis infection , 2015, The Lancet.

[3]  O. Horwitz,et al.  EPIDEMIOLOGIC EVALUATION OF CHEMOPROPHYLAXIS AGAINST TUBERCULOSIS: TWELVE YEARS FOLLOW-UP OF A COMMUNITY-WIDE CONTROLLED TRIAL WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE SAMPLING METHOD , 1974 .

[4]  V. Robison,et al.  Eliminating tuberculosis one neighborhood at a time. , 2014, American Journal of Public Health.

[5]  Ferebee Sh.  Controlled chemoprophylaxis trials in tuberculosis. A general review. , 1970 .

[6]  R. Cowie.  Short course chemoprophylaxis with rifampicin, isoniazid and pyrazinamide for tuberculosis evaluated in gold miners with chronic silicosis: a double-blind placebo controlled trial. , 1996, Tubercle and lung disease : the official journal of the International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease.

[7]  R. Chaisson,et al.  Community-randomized trial of enhanced DOTS for tuberculosis control in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. , 2010, The international journal of tuberculosis and lung disease : the official journal of the International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease.

[8]  A. Grant,et al.  Prevalence of latent tuberculosis infection among gold miners in South Africa. , 2009, The international journal of tuberculosis and lung disease : the official journal of the International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease.

[9]  J. Chapman,et al.  SOCIAL AND OTHER FACTORS IN INTRAFAMILIAL TRANSMISSION OF TUBERCULOSIS. , 1964, The American review of respiratory disease.

[10]  R. Chaisson,et al.  A trial of mass isoniazid preventive therapy for tuberculosis control. , 2014, The New England journal of medicine.

[11]  Jason R Andrews,et al.  Modeling the role of public transportation in sustaining tuberculosis transmission in South Africa. , 2013, American journal of epidemiology.

[12]  J. Golub,et al.  The benefits to communities and individuals of screening for active tuberculosis disease: a systematic review. , 2013, The international journal of tuberculosis and lung disease : the official journal of the International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease.

[13]  E. Nardell,et al.  F-A-S-T: a refocused, intensified, administrative tuberculosis transmission control strategy. , 2015, The international journal of tuberculosis and lung disease : the official journal of the International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease.

[14]  V. Mizrahi,et al.  Mycobacterium tuberculosis. , 2018, Trends in microbiology.

[15]  M. Pagano,et al.  Rapid impact of effective treatment on transmission of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis. , 2014, The international journal of tuberculosis and lung disease : the official journal of the International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease.

[16]  A. Azman,et al.  Transforming the fight against tuberculosis: targeting catalysts of transmission. , 2014, Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

[17]  Andreas Handel,et al.  Feasibility of achieving the 2025 WHO global tuberculosis targets in South Africa, China, and India: a combined analysis of 11 mathematical models , 2016, The Lancet. Global health.

[18]  Richard G. White,et al.  The transmission of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in high burden settings. , 2016, The Lancet. Infectious diseases.

[19]  J. Parkhill,et al.  Large-scale whole genome sequencing of M. tuberculosis provides insights into transmission in a high prevalence area , 2015, eLife.

[20]  G. Bothamley,et al.  Cough and the transmission of tuberculosis. , 2015, The Journal of infectious diseases.

[21]  R. Hayes,et al.  Comparison of two active case-finding strategies for community-based diagnosis of symptomatic smear-positive tuberculosis and control of infectious tuberculosis in Harare, Zimbabwe (DETECTB): a cluster-randomised trial , 2010, The Lancet.

[22]  R. Wood,et al.  A Century of Tuberculosis Epidemiology in the Northern and Southern Hemisphere: The Differential Impact of Control Interventions , 2015, PloS one.

[23]  R. Hayes,et al.  Epidemiology of Tuberculosis in a High HIV Prevalence Population Provided with Enhanced Diagnosis of Symptomatic Disease , 2007, PLoS medicine.

[24]  R. Riley,et al.  Infectiousness of air from a tuberculosis ward. Ultraviolet irradiation of infected air: comparative infectiousness of different patients. , 1962, The American review of respiratory disease.

[25]  A. Harries,et al.  Reduced tuberculosis case notification associated with scaling up antiretroviral treatment in rural Malawi. , 2011, The international journal of tuberculosis and lung disease : the official journal of the International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease.

[26]  J. Zelner,et al.  Age-specific risks of tuberculosis infection from household and community exposures and opportunities for interventions in a high-burden setting. , 2014, American journal of epidemiology.

[27]  A. R. Escombe,et al.  Upper-Room Ultraviolet Light and Negative Air Ionization to Prevent Tuberculosis Transmission , 2009, PLoS medicine.

[28]  R. White,et al.  Age- and Sex-Specific Social Contact Patterns and Incidence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Infection , 2015, American journal of epidemiology.

[29]  R. Hayes,et al.  Effect of household and community interventions on the burden of tuberculosis in southern Africa: the ZAMSTAR community-randomised trial , 2013, The Lancet.

[30]  G. Marks,et al.  Contact investigation for tuberculosis: a systematic review and meta-analysis , 2012, European Respiratory Journal.

[31]  K. Shanaube.  The association between the magnitude of T-cell interferon-gamma responses to Mycobacterium tuberculosis specific antigens and risk of progression to tuberculosis in household contacts tested with QuantiFERON-TB Gold In-Tube Assay , 2014 .

[32]  K. Dooley,et al.  Priority-Setting for Novel Drug Regimens to Treat Tuberculosis: An Epidemiologic Model , 2017, PLoS medicine.

[33]  S. Charalambous,et al.  High Tuberculosis Prevalence in a South African Prison: The Need for Routine Tuberculosis Screening , 2014, PloS one.

[34]  M. Iseman.  Invited commentary on "Aerial dissemination of pulmonary tuberculosis. A two-year study of contagion in a tuberculosis ward". , 1995, American journal of epidemiology.

[35]  W. Stead.  Epidemiologic basis of tuberculosis eradication. , 1970, Annals of internal medicine.

[36]  D. Snider,et al.  Isoniazid prophylaxis among Alaskan Eskimos: a final report of the bethel isoniazid studies. , 2015, The American review of respiratory disease.

[37]  Daniel E. Zak,et al.  A prospective blood RNA signature for tuberculosis disease risk , 2016, The Lancet.

[38]  S. Lawn,et al.  Tuberculosis in a South African prison - a transmission modelling analysis. , 2011, South African medical journal = Suid-Afrikaanse tydskrif vir geneeskunde.

[39]  Philippe Glaziou,et al.  Global tuberculosis control: lessons learnt and future prospects , 2012, Nature Reviews Microbiology.

[40]  R. Walensky,et al.  Integrating social contact and environmental data in evaluating tuberculosis transmission in a South African township. , 2014, The Journal of infectious diseases.

[41]  S. Lawn,et al.  Antiretrovirals and isoniazid preventive therapy in the prevention of HIV-associated tuberculosis in settings with limited health-care resources. , 2010, The Lancet. Infectious diseases.

[42]  S. Ferebee,et al.  A controlled trial of community-wide isoniazid prophylaxis in Alaska. , 2015, The American review of respiratory disease.

[43]  A. Efron,et al.  Effect of improved tuberculosis screening and isoniazid preventive therapy on incidence of tuberculosis and death in patients with HIV in clinics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: a stepped wedge, cluster-randomised trial. , 2013, The Lancet. Infectious diseases.

[44]  Peter J Dodd,et al.  The Global Burden of Latent Tuberculosis Infection: A Re-estimation Using Mathematical Modelling , 2016, PLoS medicine.

[45]  R. Riley,et al.  Airborne infection : transmission and control , 1961 .

[46]  Richard G. White,et al.  Impact and cost-effectiveness of new tuberculosis vaccines in low- and middle-income countries , 2014, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[47]  Grant Theron,et al.  Feasibility, accuracy, and clinical effect of point-of-care Xpert MTB/RIF testing for tuberculosis in primary-care settings in Africa: a multicentre, randomised, controlled trial , 2014, The Lancet.

[48]  M. Heo,et al.  Yield of contact investigations in households of patients with drug-resistant tuberculosis: systematic review and meta-analysis. , 2014, Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

[49]  Christopher Dye,et al.  Xpert MTB/RIF versus sputum microscopy as the initial diagnostic test for tuberculosis: a cluster-randomised trial embedded in South African roll-out of Xpert MTB/RIF. , 2015, The Lancet. Global health.

[50]  S. Ferebee.  Controlled chemoprophylaxis trials in tuberculosis. A general review. , 1970, Bibliotheca tuberculosea.

[51]  C. Contreras,et al.  The effect of HIV-related immunosuppression on the risk of tuberculosis transmission to household contacts. , 2014, Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

[52]  Madhukar Pai,et al.  Tuberculosis diagnosis--time for a game change. , 2010, The New England journal of medicine.

[53]  M Elizabeth Halloran,et al.  Epidemiological benefits of more-effective tuberculosis vaccines, drugs, and diagnostics , 2009, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[54]  W. F. Wells,et al.  On Air-borne Infection. Study II. Droplets and Droplet Nuclei. , 1934 .

[55]  O. Horwitz,et al.  Epidemiological basis of tuberculosis eradication. 4. The isoniazid trial in Greenland. , 1966, Bulletin of the World Health Organization.

[56]  R. Wood,et al.  A trial of mass isoniazid preventive therapy for tuberculosis control. , 2014, The New England journal of medicine.

[57]  J. Zelner,et al.  Identifying Hotspots of Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis Transmission Using Spatial and Molecular Genetic Data. , 2016, The Journal of infectious diseases.

[58]  A. R. Escombe,et al.  Tuberculosis transmission risk and infection control in a hospital emergency department in Lima, Peru. , 2010, The international journal of tuberculosis and lung disease : the official journal of the International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease.

[59]  C. Dolea,et al.  World Health Organization , 1949, International Organization.

[60]  Eduardo Gotuzzo,et al.  Rapid molecular detection of tuberculosis and rifampin resistance. , 2010, The New England journal of medicine.