Katherine Horton

Really excited to share that this work from @aschwalbc.bsky.social estimating the burden of viable Mtb infection is now published in @plosmedicine.org!

Insights on the implementation strategies for a potential new tuberculosis vaccine in South Africa Several tuberculosis (TB) vaccines intended for adults and adolescents are in late-stage clinical trials, but there is limited research into how a new TB vaccine would be introduced. South Africa is a...

Our new paper on strategies for implementing a potential new #TB #vaccine in South Africa is now published in @plosglobalpublichealth.org!

doi.org/10.1371/jour...

PhD position (London, UK)
Real-time modelling of infectious disease outbreaks.
with @sbfnk.bsky.social @anne-cori.bsky.social @seabbs.bsky.social
at @epiforecasts.io @cmmid-lshtm.bsky.social
More details: http://iddjobs.org/jobs/2440

Another successful "Intro to TB Modelling" course in Copenhagen at #WLHC2025. Over 70 joined to learn about TB modelling!

Followed by the now-traditional TB Modelling and Analysis Consortium social, which was also very well-attended and a lot of fun.

All are welcome to join the Gender Equity in TB Working Group today at 12:30 in Room B4B @theunion.org! We'll share updates on working group activities and host a panel discussion on progress to date and ways forward to ensure an equitable and inclusive #TB response.

Day 1: the LIGHT Annual Consortium meeting kicks off this morning at the Crown Plaza in Copenhagen.

Consortium partners from Nigeria, Malawi, Kenya, Uganda and the UK meet to discuss the key research findings, research uptake and impact so far.

🚨Fully-funded PhD opportunity!🚨

Interested in researching how to improve risk prediction for people with #tuberculosis #TB and #multimorbidity?

Joint project between @uofgshw.bsky.social 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 and @ki.se 🇸🇪, funded by UK MRC.

Details here⬇️

www.gla.ac.uk/postgraduate...

Interested in #TB, equity, and modelling? @reinhouben.bsky.social and I are advertising an MRC LID studentship on heterogeneity in the coverage of community screening for TB @lshtm-tbmod.bsky.social @lshtm.bsky.social.

For more details, visit mrc-lid.lshtm.ac.uk/2026-27-proj...

Many thanks to @theunion.org and @the-independent.com for highlighting our work estimating the impact of reductions in global health funding on #TB morbidity and mortality

@lshtm-tbmod.bsky.social
@tb-lshtm.bsky.social

Combining demographic shifts with age-based resistance prevalence to estimate future antimicrobial resistance burden in Europe and implications for targets: A modelling study Author summary Why was this study done? Infections caused by bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics are a major and growing threat to public health. Older adults and men are at higher risk of...

How will population shifts affect the future burden of #AMR? 👶👩‍🦳 🧫

We use a new modelling framework to explore future projections of #AMR by age and by sex, as well as interventions for control, building on our earlier findings that AMR isn’t uniform across demographics.

doi.org/10.1371/jour...

Impact of fluoroquinolone resistance on the cost-effectiveness of empiric treatment for multidrug- or rifampicin-resistant tuberculosis The WHO recommends the bedaquiline, pretomanid, and linezolid (BPaL) regimen with the additional fluoroquinolone antibiotic moxifloxacin (BPaLM) for initial treatment of multidrug- or rifampicin-resis...

When fluoroquinolone resistance status is unknown, empirical use of BPaLM (adding moxifloxacin to BPaL) is cost-effective as a replacement for BPaL even with high fluoroquinolone resistance levels! 🦠💊

doi.org/10.1371/jour...

Climate change and tuberculosis: an analytical framework Climate change is likely to exacerbate a range of determinants that drive tuberculosis, the world's leading cause of death from a single infectious agent. However, tuberculosis is often neglected in w...

Our framework that informed the @who.int TB & climate change policy brief out now in @lancetrespirmed.bsky.social, exploring the intersections and implications of climate change for the TB epidemic. Key message? TB should be considered a climate-sensitive disease
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

It was a real pleasure to deliver this Introduction to TB Modelling workshop for representatives from Kenya’s National TB, Leprosy and Lung Disease Programme last week with great discussions about how modelling can be used in policy and programme decisions.

Our analysis highlights underappreciated patterns in #TB exposure and transmission that are directly relevant to efforts to end TB. More systematic analyses to understand the epidemiology of TB transmission should be used to inform context-specific prevention and care strategies.

Across age groups, TB exposure typically peaked in adolescence. However, transmission contributions by age varied across regions with the highest proportion from adolescents aged 15-24 in AMR and SEAR, adults aged 35-44 in AFR and EUR, and older adults 65+ in EMR and WPR.

[NOT YET PEER REVIEWED]

Both exposure and transmission were higher in males than in females. We found that a majority of TB transmission was attributable to contact with adult men: 67% (95% UI 62-71%) of transmission to men, 52% (95% UI 49-56%) to women, and 63% (95% UI 58-68%) to children.

[NOT YET PEER REVIEWED]

A global analysis of patterns of tuberculosis exposure and transmission Tuberculosis (TB) is a major public health concern and the leading infectious cause of mortality globally. The disease exhibits strong prevalence patterns by age and sex, but the implications of these...

Understanding patterns of #TB exposure and transmission is needed for targeted prevention strategies. In our latest pre-print, @petedodd24.bsky.social and I estimated the proportion of TB exposure to and transmission from sex and age groups for 177 countries.

bit.ly/4nbV492

Do no harm - re-evaluating the risks of overtreatment in community-wide tuberculosis screening Background Community-wide screening is a crucial strategy to end tuberculosis (TB), but a common concern is potential harm from overtreatment following false positive diagnoses. However, current refer...

In a new preprint (NOT PEER REVIEWED) we continue to explore the challenge of overtreatment in community screening. It seems the benefits of TB treatment far outweigh the harms, especially once we accept that sputum culture is not perfect. Important food for thought. www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...

New approaches for modelling tuberculosis transmission in low incidence settings at University of Bristol on FindAPhD.com PhD Project - New approaches for modelling tuberculosis transmission in low incidence settings at University of Bristol, listed on FindAPhD.com

PhD opportunity: New approaches to modelling TB transmission in low-incidence settings.
Supervised by Ellen Brooks-Pollock (Bristol), me (Bath) & Rajeka Lazarus (Bristol)
Apply: www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
Deadline 20 Oct
#PhD #Tuberculosis #Epidemiology #InfectiousDisease

Our systematic review of rural/urban differences in #TB prevalence shows evidence of rapidly urbanising epidemics in many settings, with differences across countries and regions.

Link to preprint below ⬇️

Sad (but not surprised) to read the latest Global Health 50/50 report, amidst turmoil in global health, erosion of democracy, withdrawal from multi-lateralism, aid cuts, attacks on science, DEI, human rights

@kentbuse.bsky.social @jocalynclark.bsky.social

global5050.org/2025-report/

Men are more than twice as likely as women to have prevalent #TB.

We did updated meta-analysis including over 4million people in 99 surveys.

Despite increasing focus on gender equitable TB responses, this gap has widened since we last assessed these data over a decade ago.

6/ @petermacp.bsky.social and I seem to be the only coauthors on Bluesky, but this work comes from a great team across @hsph.harvard.edu @uofglasgow.bsky.social @tb-lshtm.bsky.social @lshtm-tbmod.bsky.social

5/ These findings show that, despite calls for gender responsive TB prevention and care, disparities have increased over the past three decades. Effective strategies to reduce men’s risk of TB and to engage men in TB prevention and care remain essential to end TB.

NOT PEER REVIEWED

4/ The stability of pooled estimates doesn't mean sex ratios have remained consistent. We found evidence that male-to-female ratios likely increased 1.6% (95% CrI -1.0-6.2%) annually over the period 1994–2021, with the greatest increase in the Western Pacific region.

NOT PEER REVIEWED

3/ We fitted multi-level Bayesian regression models to estimate a pooled male-to-female prevalence ratio of 2.21 (95% CrI 1.94-2.50) for bacteriologically-confirmed TB.

That's the same point estimate as our previous review, but the two studies used different analytical methods.

NOT PEER REVIEWED

2/ We updated our systematic review and identified 99 TB prevalence surveys reporting sex-disaggregated results (with >4 million participants) conducted between 1993 and 2024 in 33 low- or middle-income countries.

NOT PEER REVIEWED

1/ It’s been 10 years (😮) since we reported that #TB prevalence was twice as high in men as in women.

📢 Our new preprint explores how sex differences have shifted with more recent national prevalence surveys and growing attention to #gender responsive TB prevention and care.

bit.ly/4gqP1LH

Fantastic work from @aschwalbc.bsky.social now out in @plosglobalpublichealth.org. Check out his thread below for more details!

Body mass index and tuberculosis risk: an updated systematic literature review and dose–response meta-analysis AbstractBackground. The relationship between nutritional status and tuberculosis is critically important but poorly understood. We extended a 2009 review c

Nutritional status is a key determinant of TB. In this updated systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis (43 cohorts inc > 26 million people) we redefined the relationship between body mass index (BMI) and TB. doi.org/10.1093/ije/...