Tuberculosis screening and isoniazid preventive therapy implementation: a Brazilian experience

Abstract

Tuberculosis Preventive therapy has been used since the 1960s for both mass treatment of populations and for targeted therapy to high-risk groups such as children. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends the use of Isoniazid preventive therapy (IPT) as one of the strategies to reduce the TB burden among people living with HIV infection. However, its uptake in countries with high TB burden has been poor. One of the main barriers to its widespread implementation is concerns around the ruling out of active TB. WHO, in its revised guidelines on IPT, recommends the use of a symptom-based algorithm for TB screening. The randomized clinical trial evaluated here explores the effect of an intervention, in the form of training the clinic staff to screen for TB, use of tuberculin skin test and IPT to treat latent TB infection, and assess its effect on rates of TB and death in HIV infected.