ArticlePublic health action2016
Diagnosis and treatment of TB patients with rifampicin resistance detected using Xpert(®) MTB/RIF in Zimbabwe.
Article in Public health action, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 13 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pretreatment attrition after rifampicin-resistant tuberculosis diagnosis with Xpert MTB/RIF or ultra in high TB burden countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMJ global health · 2025Pooled it
- Magnitude of Tuberculosis, drug resistance patterns and associated factors among presumptive TB patients at five selected public Hospitals, Somali Region, Eastern Ethiopia. Retrospective cross-sectional study.BMC infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Estimating the effect of a rifampicin resistant tuberculosis diagnosis by the Xpert MTB/RIF assay on two-year mortality.PLOS global public health · 2023Article
- Magnitude ofInfection and drug resistance · 2021Article
- Has TB CARE I sputum transport improved access to culture services for retreatment tuberculosis patients in Zimbabwe?Public health action · 2018Article
- How has the Zimbabwe mycobacterial culture and drug sensitivity testing system among re-treatment tuberculosis patients functioned during the scale-up of the Xpert MTB/RIF assay?Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene · 2018Article
- Impact of Laboratory Practice Changes on the Diagnosis of Tuberculosis with the Introduction of Xpert MTB/RIF in Kiribati.Hawai'i journal of medicine & public health : a journal of Asia Pacific Medicine & Public Health · 2018Article
- What can National TB Control Programmes in low- and middle-income countries do to end tuberculosis by 2030?F1000Research · 2018Review
- Implementation of Xpert MTB/RIF in 22 high tuberculosis burden countries: are we making progress?The European respiratory journal · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
11 authors at 2 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
settingIn Zimbabwe, there are concerns about the management of tuberculosis (TB) patients with rifampicin (RMP) resistance diagnosed using Xpert(®) MTB/RIF.
objectiveTo assess linkages between diagnosis and treatment for these patients in Harare and Manicaland provinces in 2014.
designA retrospective cohort study.
resultsOf 20 329 Xpert assays conducted, 90% were successful, 11% detected Mycobacterium tuberculosis and 4.5% showed RMP resistance. Of 77 patients with RMP-resistant TB diagnosed by Xpert, 70% had samples sent to the reference laboratory for culture and drug susceptibility testing (CDST); 53% of the samples arrived. In 21% the samples showed M. tuberculosis growth, and in 17% the DST results were recorded, all of which confirmed RMP resistance. Of the 77 patients, 34 (44%) never started treatment for multidrug-resistant (MDR) TB, with documented reasons being death, loss to follow-up and incorrect treatment. Of the 43 patients who started MDR-TB treatment, 12 (71%) in Harare and 17 (65%) in Manicaland started within 2 weeks of diagnosis.
conclusionXpert has been rolled out successfully in two Zimbabwe provinces. However, the process of confirming CDST for Xpert-diagnosed RMP-resistant TB works poorly, and many patients are either delayed or never initiate MDR-TB treatment. These shortfalls must be addressed at the programmatic level.
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