Reducing spatial clustering to prevent tuberculosis transmission in a busy Zambian hospital: a modelling study based on person movements, environmental and clinical data
In this high-burden, well-ventilated hospital, short-range exposure remained a driver of airborne <i>Mtb</i> transmission. Simple, low-cost operational changes to reduce clustering substantially decreased proximity-driven transmission risk. Integrating proximity-focused strategies can meaningfully strengthen IPC in resource-limited healthcare settings.
Authors
- Guy Muula
- Pascal Bittel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0416-3996)
- Esau Gideon Banda
- Lavinia Furrer
- Lukas Fenner (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3309-4835)
- Nicolas Banholzer
- Fiona Mureithi
- Remo Schmutz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-3207-8052)
- Matthias Egger (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1791-1842)
- David Kronthaler
- Carolyn Bolton
Institutions
- University of Bern (CH)
- University of Copenhagen (DK)
- Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia (ZM)
- University of Zurich (CH)
- University of Bristol (GB)
- University Hospital of Zurich (CH)
- Department of Biomedicine Basel (CH)
- Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine (CH)
Publication Details
- Journal
- medRxiv
- Published
- 2025-12-27
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.64898/2025.12.24.25342956
- Primary Topic
- Tuberculosis Research and Epidemiology
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung
- National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases