Innovative Methods to Manage, Detect, and Prevent Tuberculosis

[Extract] The differential infectiousness of patients with tuberculosis has been studied for more than 50 years (2), and several research groups have shown that some cases are more infectious than others (2–5). Several methods of evaluating tuberculosis infectiousness have been used, including sputum smear status, cavitary lung lesions, tuberculin skin test (TST) conversion among contacts, and molecular epidemiological methods. Despite the diversity in methodology used, identifying the most infectious cases remains challenging. To prevent Mycobacterium tuberculosis transmission, accurate methods to identify highly infectious tuberculosis cases must be developed