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| Asymptomatic tuberculosis: moving beyond symptom-oriented prevention and control strategies |
| GE Shijia, LI Yang, ZHANG Wenhong
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| Huashan Hospital Affiliated to Fudan University, Shanghai 200040, China |
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Abstract Tuberculosis constitutes a major global public health concern. With the widespread implementation of active screening, asymptomatic tuberculosis patients as a hidden source of infection has drawn increasing attention. This paper reviews the definition, epidemiological and transmission risks, active case-finding strategies, and research progress in short-course treatment of asymptomatic tuberculosis. It also analyzes the challenges, including inconsistent diagnostic criteria, excessive reliance on symptom-based assessment, insufficient implementation of objective detection methods in primary healthcare settings, and poor patient adherence to treatment and follow-up. It is necessary to abandon the symptom-oriented prevention and control strategy, accelerate the formulation of unified diagnostic criteria, promote the large-scale application of objective detection technologies in primary healthcare settings, and continuously optimize short-course treatment regimens. It is also necessary to strengthen the screening for latent tuberculosis infection and the development of novel vaccines, build a multi-dimensional, full-chain prevention and control system to achieve the goal of ending tuberculosis epidemic.
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Received: 26 March 2026
Revised: 16 June 2026
Published: 27 July 2026
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