TB prevention strategies and unanswered questions for pregnant and postpartum women living with HIV: the need for improved evidence

Introduction:

To end the tuberculosis (TB) epidemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends improving access to testing and treatment of latent TB infection (LTBI) [1]. Despite recent epidemiologic studies demonstrating an approximately twofold increased risk of active TB in peripartum women [2], and poor outcomes associated with TB during pregnancy for mothers and their infants [3, 4], lack of data has prevented comprehensive inclusion of pregnant and postpartum women in guidelines and remains a critical gap in our efforts to address TB globally.