A Model of Tuberculosis Screening for Pregnant Women in Resource-Limited Settings Using Xpert MTBRIF.pdfVIP

Hindawi Publishing Corporation Journal of Pregnancy Volume 2012, Article ID 565049, 5 pages doi:10.1155/2012/565049 Review Article A Model of Tuberculosis Screening for Pregnant Women in Resource-Limited Settings Using Xpert MTB/RIF Eleanor R. Turnbull,1, 2 Nzali G. Kancheya,1 Jennifer B. Harris,1, 2 Stephanie M. Topp,1, 2 German Henostroza,1, 2 and Stewart E. Reid1, 2 1 Tuberculosis Department, Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia, 5977 Benakale Road, P.O. Box 34681, Northmead, Lusaka, Zambia 2 Schools of Medicine and Public Health, University of Alabama at Birmingham, AL 35233, USA Correspondence should be addressed to Eleanor R. Turnbull, eleanor.turnbull@ Received 14 June 2011; Accepted 10 August 2011 Academic Editor: Oliver Ezechi Copyright © 2012 Eleanor R. Turnbull et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Timely diagnosis and treatment of maternal tuberculosis (TB) is important to reduce morbidity and mortality for both the mother and child, particularly in women who are coinfected with HIV. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends the integration of TB/HIV screening into antenatal services but available diagnostic tools are slow and insensitive, resulting in delays in treatment initiation. Recently the WHO endorsed Xpert MTB/RIF, a highly sensitive, real-time PCR assay for Mycobacterium tuberculosis that simultaneously detects rifampicin resistance directly from sputum and provides results within 100 minutes. We propose a model for same-day TB screening and diagnosis of all pregnant wome