Active tuberculosis detection by pouched rats in 2014: more than 2,000 new patients found in two countries
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Date
2016
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
2016 Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior
Abstract
Tuberculosis (TB) is a major problem in poor countries because sensitive diagnostic tools are unavail-
able. In 2014, our pouched rats evaluated sputum from 21,600 Tanzanians and 9,048 Mozambicans
whose sputum had previously been evaluated by microscopy, the standard diagnostic for TB. Evalua-
tion by the rats revealed 1,412 new patients with active TB in Tanzania and 645 new patients in
Mozambique, increases of 39% and 53%, respectively, when compared to detections by microscopy
alone. These results provide further support for the applied use of scent-detecting rats.
Description
JOURNAL OF APPLIED BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS, 2016
Keywords
Applied behavior analysis, Discrimination training, Tuberculosis, Pouched rats