{"doi":"10.1017/ice.2021.422","title":"FAST tuberculosis transmission control strategy speeds the start of tuberculosis treatment at a general hospital in Lima, Peru","abstract":"Abstract Objective: To evaluate the effect of the FAST (Find cases Actively, Separate safely, Treat effectively) strategy on time to tuberculosis diagnosis and treatment for patients at a general hospital in a tuberculosis-endemic setting. Design: Prospective cohort study with historical controls. Participants: Patients diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis during hospitalization at Hospital Nacional Hipolito Unanue in Lima, Peru. Methods: The FAST strategy was implemented from July 24, 2016, to December 31, 2019. We compared the proportion of patients with drug susceptibility testing and tuberculosis treatment during FAST to the 6-month period prior to FAST. Times to diagnosis and tuberculosis treatment were also compared using Kaplan-Meier plots and Cox regressions. Results: We analyzed 75 patients diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis through FAST. The historical cohort comprised 76 patients. More FAST patients underwent drug susceptibility testing (98.7% vs 57.8%; OR, 53.8; P < .001), which led to the diagnosis of drug-resistant tuberculosis in 18 (24.3%) of 74 of the prospective cohort and 4 (9%) of 44 of the historical cohort (OR, 3.2; P = .03). Overall, 55 FAST patients (73.3%) started tuberculosis treatment during hospitalization compared to 39 (51.3%) controls (OR, 2.44; P = .012). FAST reduced the time from hospital admission to the start of TB treatment (HR, 2.11; 95% CI, 1.39–3.21; P < .001). Conclusions: Using the FAST strategy improved the diagnosis of drug-resistant tuberculosis and the likelihood and speed of starting treatment among patients with pulmonary tuberculosis at a general hospital in a tuberculosis-endemic setting. In these settings, the FAST strategy should be considered to reduce tuberculosis transmission while simultaneously improving the quality of care.","journal":"Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology","year":2021,"id":195098,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":9,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.8885,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2021-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":766335,"name":"Eli Orvis","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":275219,"name":"Ruvandhi R. Nathavitharana","orcid":"0000-0002-3544-5021","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":766336,"name":"Shelley Hurwitz","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":766337,"name":"Karen Tintaya","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":765791,"name":"Dante Vargas","orcid":"0000-0002-3704-7844","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":722205,"name":"Patricia Segura","orcid":"0000-0001-6614-2974","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":766338,"name":"Silvana de la Gala","orcid":null,"position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":376976,"name":"Leonid Lecca","orcid":"0000-0003-1363-3985","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":765792,"name":"Carole D. Mitnick","orcid":"0000-0002-3455-658X","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":765793,"name":"Edward A. Nardell","orcid":"0000-0002-5323-3196","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":765790,"name":"Dylan B. Tierney","orcid":"0000-0001-6915-8146","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":40,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:50:03.719152Z","pmid":"34612182","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}