Vanderbilt TB Center News

To the TB Community, The Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) Department of Health will soon begin an island-wide TB screening and treatment project. The goal is to identify, evaluate and treat both active and latent TB infection (LTBI) cases among adults and children living on Majuro Island. The 24-week project will take place between June and September this year, with follow-up and treatment teams continuing to work until November 16, 2018.

Yuri van der Heijden, MD, MPH, will present an abstract at the 22nd International Workshop on HIV and Hepatitis Observational Databases (IWHOD) March 22-24, 2018, titled "Differences in ascertainment of tuberculosis resistance according to four patient-matching strategies using programmatic laboratory data in South Africa".

Heather Ewing, MA(c), MPH(c), presented her MPH thesis on Friday, March 2, titled "Knowledge of Tuberculosis is Associated with Greater Expression of Stigma in Brazil". This project stemmed from a Vanderbilt Trans-Institutional Program grant (TIPs), which focused on healthcare in Brazil.

This article was published in the Research News @ Vanderbilt online blog. Original publication: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29334197 "When they occur among people living with HIV, certain cancers and opportunistic infections are considered by health authorities as AIDS-defining events, or ADEs.

Thanks to all who braved the cold temperatures to join our January TB Center Meeting on Wednesday, January 17th!

Results from the iAdhere trial conducted through the TB Trials Consortium have been published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. This randomized trial aimed to compare treatment completion and safety of once-weekly isoniazid and rifapentine by self-administration versus direct observation. Enrollment sites were located in the US, Spain, Hong Kong, and South Africa; Vanderbilt and the Metro Nashville Health Department participated in enrollment.

Congratulations to Graeme Meintjes at University of Cape Town on a newly funded D43 training grant from the Fogarty International Center (FIC) titled "HIV-Associated Tuberculosis Training Program (HATTP)". VUMC is excited to be a US partner site for this training grant, along with Johns Hopkins University.

Charles L. Daley, MD, Chief of the Division of Mycobacterial and Respiratory Infections at National Jewish Health in Denver, CO, presented Medicine Grand Rounds today. His talk was sponsored by the M. Glenn Koenig, Visiting Professorship in Infectious Diseases, hosted by the Division of Infectious Disease. During his talk, "Nontuberculous Mycobacteria: What's in a name?", he described the many species of mycobacteria and how they affect disease progression.

The Regional Prospective Observational Research for Tuberculosis (RePORT)- International Annual Meeting was held Tuesday, September 12 through Wednesday, September 13, 2017 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. RePORT-International is now composed of 5 regions: Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, and South Africa.

Chris Fiske, MD, MPH and Spyros Kalams, MD, presented at ID Grand Rounds on Thursday, September 7th. Dr. Fiske presented her work on the host immune response to M.tuberculosis, including a focus on patients with extrapulmonary tuberculosis. Dr. Kalams presented on the immunology of tuberculosis and an ongoing study funded by the NIH and CNPq in Brazil which is attempting to identify an immune signature that predicts active TB disease.

The Vanderbilt Tuberculosis Center turns 5 this year and a celebratory meeting was hosted on August 23rd, 2017. First we heard from Heather Ewing, MPH/MA candidate, who discussed updates from the TIPS (Trans-Institutional Programs) grant on health in Brazil.

Congratulations to Fernanda Maruri, MPH, who was awarded the Vivien A. Thomas Award for Excellence in Clinical Research during the 13th annual Research Staff Awards! Fernanda is a clinical and translational research coordinator III in the Division of Infectious Diseases and has worked with Dr. Tim Sterling for over 10 years. Fernanda earned her master’s degree in public health from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. In 2004 she was hired by Timothy Sterling, M.D., to coordinate a clinical tuberculosis study.