{"doi":"10.1093/ofid/ofab127","title":"Long-Term Mortality and Active Tuberculosis Disease Among Patients Who Were Lost to Follow-Up During Second-Line Tuberculosis Treatment in 2011–2014: Population-Based Study in the Country of Georgia","abstract":"BACKGROUND: High rates of loss to follow-up (LFU) exist among patients with multidrug and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (M/XDR TB). We aimed to identify long-term clinical outcomes of patients who were LFU during second-line TB treatment. METHODS: We conducted a follow-up study among adults who received second-line TB treatment in the country of Georgia during 2011-2014 with a final outcome of LFU. We attempted to interview all LFU patients, administered a structured questionnaire, and obtained sputum samples. Active TB at follow-up was defined by positive sputum Xpert-TB/RIF or culture. RESULTS: Follow-up information was obtained for 461 patients. Among these patients, 107 (23%) died and 177 (38%) were contacted. Of those contacted, 123 (69%) consented to participate and 92 provided sputum samples. Thirteen (14%) had active TB with an estimated infectious time period for transmitting drug-resistant TB in the community of 480 days (interquartile range = 803). In multivariable analysis, positive culture at the time of LFU was associated with active TB at the time of our study (adjusted risk ratio = 13.3; 95% confidence interval, 4.2-42.2). CONCLUSIONS: Approximately one quarter of patients on second-line TB treatment who were LFU died. Among those LFU evaluated in our study, 1 in 7 remained in the community with positive sputum cultures. To reduce death and transmission of disease, additional strategies are needed to encourage patients to complete treatment.","journal":"Open Forum Infectious Diseases","year":2021,"id":205818,"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":7,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9296,"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":231889,"name":"Davit Baliashvili","orcid":"0000-0001-8390-3325","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":789628,"name":"Natalia Adamashvili","orcid":"0000-0002-2763-5888","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":409718,"name":"Ana Kasradze","orcid":"0000-0003-3442-2722","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":332451,"name":"Russell R. Kempker","orcid":"0000-0002-7188-4996","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":231932,"name":"Matthew J. Magee","orcid":"0000-0002-8068-5796","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":789627,"name":"Giorgi Kuchukhidze","orcid":"0000-0003-2066-873X","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":30,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:51:37.630221Z","pmid":"34189157","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":[]}