Article Sidebar
Published:
Apr 29, 2022DOI:
10.4314/ahs.v22i1.65Keywords:
Article Details
While African Health Sciences has been freely accessible online there have been questions on whether it is Open Access or not. We wish to clearly state that indeed African Health Sciences is Open Access. There are key issues regarding Open Access needing clarification for avoidance of doubt:
- 1. Henceforth, papers in African Health Sciences will be published under the CC BY (Creative Commons Attribution License) 4.0 International. See details on https://creativecomons.org/)
- 2. The copyright owners or the authors grant the 3rd party (perpetually and in advance) the right to disseminate, reproduce, or use the research papers in part or in full, format/medium as long as:
- No substantive errors are introduced in the process
- Attribution of authorship and correct citation details are given
- The referencing details are not changed.
Should the papers be reproduced in part, this must be clearly stated.
- 3. The papers will be freely and universally accessible online in an easily readable format such as XML in at least one widely recognized open access repository such as PUBMED CENTRAL.
B. ABRIDGED LICENCE AGREEMENT BETWEEN AUTHORS AND African Health Sciences
I submitted my manuscript to African Health Sciences and would like to affirm that:
1.0 I am authorized by my co-authors to enter into these arrangements.
2.0 I guarantee, on behalf of self and co-authors:
- That the paper is original, and has not been published in any other peer-reviewed journal; nor is it under consideration by other journal (s). It does not infringe existing copyright or any other person’s rights
- That we are/I am the sole author(s) of the paper and with authority to enter into this agreement. My granting rights to African Health Sciences is not in breach of any other obligation
- That the paper contains nothing unlawful, or libelous. Nor anything that would constitute a breach of contract, confidence or commitment given to secrecy, if published
- That I/we have taken care to ensure the integrity of the article.
3.0 I and all co-authors, agree that the paper, if accepted for publication, shall be licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0. (see https://creativecommons.org/)
Main Article Content
Mycobacterium tuberculosis mixed infections and drug resistance in sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic review
Abstract
Background: Sub-Saharan Africa, is a region that records high rates of TB infection. Mycobacterium tuberculosis mixed strain infection, especially when the strains involved are of different susceptibilities, is an area of great interest because it is linked with an increased risk of treatment failure and transmission of resistant strains within the population. This paper reviewed original studies that reported MTB mixed infection and heteroresistance in the region between 2010 and 2020 to understand the extent of mixed strain infection and heteroresistance in the region. This information is very critical in the control of TB and ending the TB epidemic by 2035 as per the World Health Organization's vision.
Methods: Pubmed, Scopus, JSTOR, AJOL, and Google Scholar databases were searched through both key terms and subject headings. The literature was screened, assessed for the quality and evidence synthesized.
Results: Eighteen original articles were included in this review after having met the inclusion criteria. The frequency of mixed strain infection reported in these studies varied between 2.8% and 21.1% while drug resistance range between 0.06% to 19% depending on the study design and the drug susceptibility screening technique utilized. The majority of the studies (50%) utilized Spoligotyping in conjunction with MIRU-VNTR typing in the detection of mixed infections.
Conclusion: Despite the scarcity of data on mixed infections and heteroresistance in sub–Saharan Africa, various studies have revealed that these conditions are frequent in the region than previously thought. Given the evidence of the effect of mixed infections on drug resistance and treatment outcome, we conclude that mixed infection is an unavoidable topic for future studies.
Keywords: Tuberculosis; mixed infection; drug resistance.
