Hannah Rickman

infographic highlighting the key points from the paper published in the Lancet: Sex differences in the risk of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection: a systematic review and meta-analysis of population-based immunoreactivity surveys

NEW STUDY! 📣

A large global study found men are more likely to be exposed to TB than women.

The reason? Likely social behaviours:
• More time in crowded indoor spaces
• Delays in seeking care

READ MORE ⤵️
🔗 www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

@petermacp.bsky.social @hannahrickman.bsky.social

🚨”Amita Gupta has spent more than a decade planning and running a US$70-million trial to study a new #tuberculosis drug, enrolling nearly 6,000 participants across 13 countries. It might all have been for nothing. Gupta’s trial has been ensnared by… [new] NIH policy… that bans ‘foreign subawards’”⤵️

Factors driving adolescent tuberculosis incidence by age and sex in 30 high-tuberculosis burden countries: a mathematical modelling study During adolescence, tuberculosis incidence rises, with a greater increase in males compared with females. Tuberculosis notifications and estimates infrequently disaggregate adolescent age groups. More...

#Tuberculosis Journal Club
**TODAY** 4pm UK time.
@jaseddon.bsky.social & Dr Amedine Duret taking us through the drivers of adolescent TB 👫
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC... by Silvia Chiang, @petedodd24.bsky.social &al
Hope to see you there!
eepurl.com/hO4D79 to join mailing list ✉️
#tbsky

Each day of funding cuts means 11,000 people with TB may not complete their treatment. Stopping TB programs isn't just bad policy – it’s a public health catastrophe. Countless lives are at stake! #FundTBNow #FundingCutsCostLives

Brilliant presentation by Verena Faehling & chairing by Liz Corbett - thanks so much all who joined for a great discussion 👏 eepurl.com/hO4D79 to join mailing list for future sessions.

A Meta-Analysis of Levofloxacin for Contacts of Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis Data from randomized trials evaluating the effectiveness of tuberculosis (TB) preventive treatment for contacts of multidrug-resistant (MDR)-TB are lacking. Two recently published randomized trials...

First TB Journal Club of 2025 meets *this Thursday* 20th at 4pm UK time 🕓
Liz Corbett & Verena Faehling @lshtm.bsky.social will be discussing shorturl.at/AGD8l Duong &al 2024 meta-analysis of VQUIN & TB-CHAMP RCTs of levofloxacin for #MDRTB contacts.
Hope to see you there!
#tbsky #tuberculosis

Early data from @publichealthscot.bsky.social show that RSV vaccination (Pfizer ABRYSVO) in older adults aged 75-79 years was associated with 62% ⬇️ (95%CI 35-80%) in #RSV hospitalisation. 🦠🏥💉🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿👏

Vaccination commenced mid August 2024 & uptake was 68.6% by end of Nov 2024.

Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Marie Curie, Physicist and chemist.

Today is International Day of Women & Girls in Science.

Marie Curie, the first woman to win a Nobel Prize. Her contributions have left an indelible mark on the world of science & health & continue to inspire generations of scientists & innovators. 🔬 #WomenInScience #WomenInSTEM

Effects of conditional cash transfers on tuberculosis incidence and mortality according to race, ethnicity and socioeconomic factors in the 100 Million Brazilian Cohort - Nature Medicine Participation in Brazil’s Bolsa Familia Program, one of the largest conditional cash transfer programs in the world, was associated with large reductions in tuberculosis incidence and mortality among Indigenous people, individuals of Black and Pardo ethnicity and those living in extreme poverty.

A paper in Nature Medicine reports that participation in Brazil’s Bolsa Familia Program, one of the largest conditional cash transfer programs in the world, was associated with large reductions in tuberculosis incidence and mortality among various groups. #Medsky 🧪

Compelling analysis suggesting that M:F difference in TB rates driven by differences in rates of Mtb infection. Consistent with old (2000) analysis of genotypic clustering (PMID: 10654640). But why do zoonotic TB series often have flipped ratios? doi: 10.1093/infdis/jiae124

A brave soul could do a "quick" meta-analysis! @petermacp.bsky.social

1) Sex differences in interactions even within households
2) Differential exposure outside household (restricting to low-incidence settings would help)
3) Men are more likely to have female partners! So female HHCs more likely exposed to male index patients: on average, more infectious for longer.

Thanks! Quite a lot of HHC studies out there, which we excluded here - but from those I read with sex-disaggregated data, I didn't get a sense of a clear trend for ⬆️ risk in either direction. It is difficult though to fully "control" on exposure, due to... [contd]

New pre-print led by @hannahrickman.bsky.social tinyurl.com/589ffhu4

We meta-analysed ~half a million participants from #TB infection surveys.

From adolescence, men have much higher risk of acquiring new TB infection than women. Probably due to social exposure and assortative mixing.
#IDsky 🧪🦠🛟

🚩🚩🚩🚩!

Lots of fun to work with a great team (not all on bluesky!) @petermacp.bsky.social @petedodd24.bsky.social @kchorton.bsky.social @esnightingale.bsky.social David Dowdy, Liz Corbett, Maria Krutikov & especially Mphatso Phiri & Helena Feasey who helped screen a LOT of papers 😵

Lots of caveats (see pre-print!) and it's not yet peer-reviewed.
Big thanks to all the authors who provided unpublished data (including some who dug out their floppy discs from 1998!), @britishlibrary.bsky.social for paper-hunting help, and original research participants. 🧵

So what?
-Disparities in exposure drive disparities in disease - need to tackle transmission in workplaces, public spaces, prisons...
-Improving men's access to rx essential to interrupt transmission
-Infection-focused interventions (vaccination, TPT) need to actively engage men for efficacy. 🧵

-Men experience consistently higher Mtb exposure than women, likely driving a substantial proportion of the M:F disparity in TB disease.
-Why? Social/behavioural differences mean adult men spend more time in high-transmission spaces, amplified by sex-assortative mixing & diagnostic delays in men 🧵

We found that from adolescence onwards, rates of Mtb conversion increased, and men were at higher risk of acquiring new Mtb infection than women. Mtb conversion was highest at age ~30, and was up to 1.5-times higher in men than in women. This was consistent across settings (regions, rural/urban). 🧵

We screened 25,000+ studies (😱 - grateful for the teamwork here!) and included data from 81 population-based #IGRA & #TST surveys performed in high-TB settings since 1993 ➡️500,000 participants from 38 countries. We used Bayesian meta-analysis to analyse Mtb immunoreactivity by age and sex. 🧵

New preprint (with all pre-print caveats!) tinyurl.com/589ffhu4 on Mtb infection risk by sex & age.
Men are at higher risk of #tuberculosis v women- but unclear how much driven by higher infection vs progression to disease. We meta-analysed Mtb immunoreactivity surveys to find out more🧵 #tbsky

👋 Hi! Mostly here for work 🤫! Came for the tuberculosis epidemiology, stayed for the ultrarunning content.

We had high hopes for an #IGRA platform overcoming barriers to use in high #tuberculosis burden settings. Unfortunately it didn't perform as expected, esp in young children #idsky #tbsky
shorturl.at/dAcPD
Great to work with a fantastic team at Malawi Liverpool Wellcome prog & @lshtm.bsky.social

We urgently need a better, easier-to-use test for #TB infection.

We evaluated the QIAreach test among 1049 children and adults in 🇲🇼

Unfortunately, performance was poor & can’t be recommended for use
#TBsky #IDSky
@hannahrickman.bsky.social

doi.org/10.1128/jcm....

REMINDER - final TBJC of 2024 is tomorrow at 4pm UK time. Look forward to seeing you there!

#tuberculosis #journalclub

Huge huge congratulations to this amazing scientist & excellent human @rachaelburke.bsky.social 👏

Read this amazing preprint today: ~2% (156M) of the world recently infected with #tb.

Between 4.9%~7.7% have viable infection.

But emphasises we need +++ data on Mtb infection
@aschwalbc.bsky.social @kchorton.bsky.social @petedodd24.bsky.social @reinhouben.bsky.social @hannahrickman.bsky.social

Final TB Journal Club of 2024! Hope to see you there.