RevieweLife2023
Estimating the contribution of subclinical tuberculosis disease to transmission: An individual patient data analysis from prevalence surveys.
Review in eLife, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 74 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
74 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 78 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Role of Toll-like Receptor 2 Polymorphisms in Susceptibility to and Severity of Tuberculosis: A Systematic Review.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Pooled it
- Evaluating the diagnostic accuracy of QIAreach QuantiFERON-TB compared to QuantiFERON-TB Gold Plus for tuberculosis: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Scientific reports · 2024Pooled it
- Subclinical tuberculosis: a meta-analysis of prevalence and scoping review of definitions, prevalence and clinical characteristics.European respiratory review : an official journal of the European Respiratory Society · 2024Pooled it
- Estimating the contribution to transmission of asymptomatic tuberculosis from population-based genomic epidemiology studies.Emerging microbes & infections · 2026Article
- Tuberculosis epidemiology and programmatic progress in the WHO Western Pacific Region, 2010-2024: an analysis of surveillance data.Tropical medicine and health · 2026Article
- Longitudinal Symptom Transitions Predict Incident Tuberculosis Risk in Serial Active Case Finding.The Journal of infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Centralized molecular testing of community-collected tongue swabs for tuberculosis screening among household contacts: a cross-sectional diagnostic performance, yield, and implementation study.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- Comparison of phylogenetic metrics of transmission between symptomatic and asymptomatic tuberculosis in individuals who were incarcerated in Brazil in 2008-24: a retrospective genomic epidemiology study.The Lancet. Microbe · 2026Article
- Cost-effectiveness of community tuberculosis screening in South Africa.American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine · 2026Article
- Treatment outcomes and risk factors for unfavorable results among older asymptomatic pulmonary tuberculosis patients in China, 2021-2024.BMC geriatrics · 2026Article
- Mycobacterium tuberculosis transmission from tuberculosis patients with and without recognized symptoms: a case-contact study in eastern China.Nature communications · 2026Article
- The host immune response to Mycobacterium tuberculosis determining protection or disease progression.Nature immunology · 2026Review
- Article
- Comparison of active and passive case finding on diagnostic delay and treatment outcomes in older patients with pulmonary tuberculosis: a cohort study using real-world data.BMC infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Asymptomatic tuberculosis in Japan: a 15-year national surveillance study, 2008-2022.The Lancet regional health. Western Pacific · 2026Article
- Asymptomatic tuberculosis detected in health screening predicts favourable outcome.ERJ open research · 2026Article
- Mycobacterium tuberculosis-Specific CFP-10/ESAT-6 CD4 and CD8 T-Cell Non-IFN-γ+ Responses Are Common in Young Kenyan Children Despite Low Reported Tuberculosis Exposure.The Journal of infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Tuberculosis in households with infectious cases in Kampala city: Harnessing health data science for new insights on an ancient disease with persistent, unresolved problems (DS-IAFRICA-TB) Study Protocol.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- Transmissibility and Disease Progression of Asymptomatic Mycobacterium tuberculosis Infection, Lima, Peru.Emerging infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Trade-offs in diagnostic algorithm, population coverage, and duration of community screening for tuberculosis: A modelling study.PLoS medicine · 2026Article
14 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
21 authors at 15 institutions in 12 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Background: Individuals with bacteriologically confirmed pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) disease who do not report symptoms (subclinical TB) represent around half of all prevalent cases of TB, yet their contribution to Methods: We reviewed the literature to identify studies where surveys of Results: We collated data on 414 index cases and 789 household contacts from three prevalence surveys (Bangladesh, the Philippines, and Viet Nam) and one case-finding trial in Viet Nam. The odds ratio for infection in a household with a clinical versus subclinical index case (irrespective of sputum smear status) was 1.2 (0.6-2.3, 95% confidence interval). Adjusting for duration of disease, we found a per-unit-time infectiousness of subclinical TB relative to clinical TB of 1.93 (0.62-6.18, 95% prediction interval [PrI]). Fourteen countries across Asia and Africa provided data on relative prevalence of subclinical and clinical TB, suggesting an estimated 68% (27-92%, 95% PrI) of global transmission is from subclinical TB. Conclusions: Our results suggest that subclinical TB contributes substantially to transmission and needs to be diagnosed and treated for effective progress towards TB elimination. Funding: JCE, KCH, ASR, NS, and RH have received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (ERC Starting Grant No. 757699) KCH is also supported by UK FCDO (Leaving no-one behind: transforming gendered pathways to health for TB). This research has been partially funded by UK aid from the UK government (to KCH); however, the views expressed do not necessarily reflect the UK government's official policies. PJD was supported by a fellowship from the UK Medical Research Council (MR/P022081/1); this UK-funded award is part of the EDCTP2 programme supported by the European Union. RGW is funded by the Wellcome Trust (218261/Z/19/Z), NIH (1R01AI147321-01), EDTCP (RIA208D-2505B), UK MRC (CCF17-7779 via SET Bloomsbury), ESRC (ES/P008011/1), BMGF (OPP1084276, OPP1135288 and INV-001754), and the WHO (2020/985800-0).
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.