Treatment outcomes of individuals with tuberculosis identified from mobile chest X-ray–based active case finding in Pakistan

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Mobile X-ray-based active case finding is being scaled up across high-burden countries to improve detection of early and asymptomatic tuberculosis (TB). However, limited evidence is available for treatment outcomes in programmatic settings. We investigated outcomes of 1,023,488 individuals screened through community-based mobile X-rays in Pakistan. Among 7,381 individuals treated for TB, 4,104 (55.6%) did not have bacteriological confirmation suggesting low bacterial disease burden. Individuals with bacteriologically unconfirmed TB were more likely to be lost to follow-up relative to those with bacteriologically confirmed TB (18.3% vs. 13.2%), highlighting the need for strategies to ensure individuals remain engaged in care throughout treatment.