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Reducing the global burden of tuberculosis: the contribution of improved diagnostics

Nature volume 444, pages 49–57 (2006)Cite this article

We estimated the impact of hypothetical new diagnostic tests for tuberculosis (TB) in patients with persistent cough in developing countries. We found that a variety of new tests could help better identify TB cases and target treatment, thereby reducing the burden of disease.

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Figure 1: Tree for adults presenting with persistent cough.
Figure 2: Sensitivity and specificity tradeoffs in new tests.
Figure 3: Impact of a 0.01 change in parameters on lives gained (in thousands) in southeast Asia.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank M. Weinstein (Harvard School of Public Health, Massachusetts, USA) and M. Zignol (World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland) for their comments on an earlier draft of this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. RAND Corporation, PO Box 2138, 1776 Main Street, Santa Monica, 90407-2138, California, USA

    Emmett Keeler, Julia E. Aledort, Lee Hillborne, Maria E. Rafael & Federico Girosi

  2. Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics, PO Box 93, 71 Avenue Louis Casai, Cointrin, 1216, Switzerland

    Mark D. Perkins

  3. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, PO Box 23350, Seattle, 98102, Washington, USA

    Peter Small

  4. United States Agency for International Development, 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue North West, Washington DC, 20523, USA

    Christy Hanson

  5. Infectious Disease Research Institute, 1124 Columbia Street, Seattle, 98104, Washington, USA

    Steven Reed

  6. World Health Organization, Avenue Appia, Geneva 27, 1211, Switzerland

    Jane Cunningham & Christopher Dye

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  1. Emmett Keeler
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  2. Mark D. Perkins
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Correspondence to Emmett Keeler.

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Keeler, E., Perkins, M., Small, P. et al. Reducing the global burden of tuberculosis: the contribution of improved diagnostics. Nature 444 (Suppl 1), 49–57 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature05446

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