PLoS medicine
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The cascade of care is a model for evaluating patient retention across sequential stages of care required to achieve a successful treatment outcome. This approach was first used to evaluate HIV care and has since been applied to other diseases. ⋯ We highlight approaches for overcoming challenges in constructing the TB care cascade, which include difficulties in estimating the population-level burden of disease and the diagnostic gap due to the limited sensitivity of TB diagnostic tests. We also describe potential uses of this model for evaluating the impact of interventions to improve case finding, diagnosis, linkage to care, retention in care, and post-treatment monitoring of TB patients.
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Review
Setting targets for HIV/AIDS-What lessons can be learned from other disease control programmes?
In a Collection Review, Richard Hayes and colleagues discuss metrics for assessing progress in control of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the context of prior disease control programmes.