A significant proportion of people in the community with pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) have subclinical disease, according to a meta-analysis involving survey studies across Africa and Asia. In adjusted analyses, 82.8% (95% CI 78.6-86.6) of participants with TB reported no persistent cough and 62.5% (95% CI 56.6-68.7) reported no cough at all, according to Frank Cobelens, MD, MSc, PhD, of the Amsterdam Institute for Global Health and Development, and colleagues from the scTB Meta Investigator Group.
Furthermore, the findings in Lancet Infectious Disease opens in a new tab or window showed, 27.7% (95% CI 21.0-36.4) of participants with TB reported no symptoms suggestive of the disease at all, including cough, chest pain, fever, night sweats, or weight loss. To read the full story.