Notes from the Director

Dear Colleague:

This past spring, the Division of Tuberculosis Elimination (DTBE) staff have been involved in a variety of events. DTBE hosted a TB Expert Network Conference in late April with the TB Centers ofExcellence for Training, Education, and Medical Consultation (TB COEs). The topic of the conference was What’s New on the Menu for TB Treatments? A Discussion of Drugs for a Complicated U.S. TB Patient.

DTBE representatives attended a two-day meeting, Primary Care and Public Health: Partners in Prevention Meeting, in Atlanta May 7-8.

Communications, Education and Behavioral Branch Updates

New Branch Chief

Nickolas (Nick) DeLuca, PhD, is joining DTBE as the Chief of the Communications, Education, and Behavioral Studies Branch (CEBSB). Dr. DeLuca previously served as the Associate Director for Communication Science in the Center for Global Health (CGH). There, he led a variety of important actions including the development and implementation of many new communication products, extensive updates to web-based and social media materials, delivery of emergency and risk communication training to countries throughout the world, and media relations with a variety of domestic and international media outlets. Read More

Surveillance for TB Elimination Management System (STEMS)

Surveillance for TB Elimination Management System (STEMS)

In keeping with the DTBE’s focus on improvement of testing, treatment, and treatment completion for latent TB infection in high-risk populations, the Tuberculosis Epidemiologic Studies Consortium (TBESC) has developed a latent TB infection surveillance and case management system for use by local jurisdictions. STEMS, developed in collaboration with Northrop Grumman (NG), is a secure, web-based system currently used for research purposes by all TBESC health department sites. The real-time system permits evaluation and tracking of all patients tested for latent TB infection. It is free to all users. Read More

Laboratory Branch Updates

Diagnostic Mycobacteriology Workshop and Laboratory Professionals Week

During the week of April 24, the DTBE Laboratory Branch hosted the annual Mycobacterium tuberculosis: Diagnostic Principles and Procedures Workshop at CDC. Twenty laboratorians selected from states and countries across North America participated in this four-day course. Topics related to laboratory risk assessment, biological safety cabinet practices, specimen processing and isolation, false-positive and false-negative results prevention, mycobacteriology test methods, drug susceptibility testing, laboratory performance indicators, validation principles, molecular testing including whole genome sequencing, and TB epidemiology

Clinical Research Branch Updates

The Latest News from the TB Trials Consortium (TBTC)

TBTC Study 31 (Rifapentine-containing treatment shortening regimens for pulmonary tuberculosis: A randomized, open-label, controlled phase 3 clinical trial) continues to enroll. As of April 9, 2018, the study had 1,887 participants, 75% of target enrollment.

Data Management, Statistics and Evaluation Branch Updates

This summary describes the recently published manuscript, Development of a Surveillance Definition for United States–Mexico Binational Cases of Tuberculosis, by Rachel Yelk Woodruff, Mark Miner, Roque Miramontes in collaboration with Juli Bettridge, Miguel Escobedo, Diana Fortune, Maria Galvis, Lupe Gonzalez, Eric Hawkins, Paula Kriner, Kathleen Moser, Maria Rodriquez, Neha Shah, Cynthia Tafolla, and Courtney Yuen.

New CDC Publications

April 2018

Beavers SF, Pascopella L, Davidow AL, Mangan JM, Hirsch-Moverman YR, Golub JE, Blumberg HM, Webb RM, Royce RA, Buskin SE, Leonard MK, Weinfurter PC, Belknap RW, Hughes SE, Warkentin JV, Welbel SF, Miller TL, Kundipati SR, Lauzardo M, Barry PM, Katz DJ, Garrett DO, Graviss EA, Flood JM; Tuberculosis Epidemiologic Studies Consortium. Tuberculosis mortality in the United States: epidemiology and prevention opportunities. Ann Am Thorac Soc 2018.