Is Early @entity378 Death Associated with Increased XXXX Transmission?

@entity1 @entity645 @entity281 @entity378 @entity204 @entity1907
INTRODUCTION: @entity378 ( @entity378 ) is now a relatively uncommon disease in high income countries. As such, its diagnosis may be missed or delayed resulting in death before or shortly after the introduction of treatment. Whether early @entity204 is associated with increased @entity378 transmission is unknown. To determine the transmission risk attributable to early @entity204 we undertook a case-control study. METHODS: All adults who were: (1) diagnosed with culture-positive @entity1907 in the Province of Alberta, Canada between 1996 and 2012, and (2) died a @entity204 before or within the first 60 days of treatment, were identified. For each of these "cases" two sets of "controls" were randomly selected from among culture-positive @entity1907 cases that survived beyond 60 days of treatment. "Controls" were matched by age, sex, population group, +/- smear status. Secondary cases of "cases" and "controls" were identified using conventional and molecular epidemiologic tools and compared. In addition, new @entity281 were identified and compared in contacts of "cases" that died before treatment and contacts of their smear-matched "controls". Conditional logistic regression was used to find associations in both univariate and multivariate analysis. RESULTS: "Cases" were as, but not more, likely than "controls" to transmit. This was so whether transmission was measured in terms of the number of "cases" and smear-unmatched or -matched "controls" that had a secondary case, the number of secondary cases that they had or the number of new @entity281 found in contacts of "cases" that died before treatment and their smear-matched "controls". CONCLUSION: In a low @entity378 incidence/low @entity645 prevalence country, @entity1907 @entity1 that die a @entity204 before or in the initial phase of treatment and @entity1907 @entity1 that survive beyond the initial phase of treatment are equally likely to transmit.
