ArticleAfrican health sciences2021
The threat of persistent bacteria and fungi contamination in tuberculosis sputum cultures.
Article in African health sciences, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed, 4 citations in OpenAlex.
- A method for purifying and concentrating Mycobacterium tuberculosis in sputum specimens: The double-membrane filtration and concentration method (DMFCM).Journal of clinical tuberculosis and other mycobacterial diseases · 2025Article
- Non-Coding RNAs in Pulmonary Diseases: Comparison of Different Airway-Derived Biosamples.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Review
- Editorial: Infectious diseases and NCDs persist despite concerted effort.African health sciences · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundTuberculosis (TB) sputum culture contaminants make it difficult to obtain pure TB isolates.We aimed to study and identify persistent TB sputum culture contaminants post the standard laboratory pre-culture sample decontamination techniques.
methodsThis was a longitudinal study of TB sputum culture contamination for a cohort of TB patients on standard treatment at: baseline, during TB treatment and post TB treatment. Sputum samples were decontaminated with 1.5%NaOH and neutralized using 6.8 Phosphate buffer solution.Sputum was then inoculated into MGIT (mycobactrial growth indicator tube) supplemented with 0.8ml PANTA. A drop of each positive MGIT culture was sub cultured onto blood agar and incubated for 48 hours at 35 -37OC.Any growth was identified using growth characteristics and colony morphology.
resultsFrom October 2017 through May 2019;we collected 8645 sputum samples of which 8624(99.8%) were eligible and inoculated into MGIT where 2444(28.3%)samples were TB culture positive and 255(10.4%)were positive for contaminants: 237 none-tuberculosis bacteria, 12 fungi and 6 mixed(none-tuberculous bacteria+fungi). There was no statistically significant difference between none tuberculosis bacteria and fungi in the treatment (OR=1.4,95%CI:0.26-7.47,p=0.690) and the post treatment TB phases(OR=2.02,95%CI:0.38-10.79,p=0.411)Vs baseline.
conclusionNone-tuberculous bacteria and fungi dominate the plethora of TB sputum culture contamination and persist beyond the standard laboratory pre-culture decontamination algorithm.
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