Enhancing tuberculosis (TB) prevention and care in a post-COVID-19-pandemic phase will be essential to ensure progress towards global TB elimination. In low-burden countries, asylum seekers constitute an important high-risk group. TB frequently arises post-immigration due to the reactivation of latent TB infection (LTBI). Upon-entry screening for LTBI and TB preventive treatment (TPT) are considered worthwhile if targeted to asylum seekers from high-incidence countries who usually present with higher rates of LTBI. However, there is insufficient knowledge about optimal incidence thresholds above which introduction could be cost-effective. We aimed to estimate, among asylum seekers in Germany, the health impact and costs of upon-entry LTBI screening/TPT introduced at different thresholds of country-of-origin TB incidence.

Decision making process for Official Development Assistance (ODA) for healthcare sector in low-income and middle-income countries involves multiple agencies, each with their unique power, priorities and funding mechanisms. This process at country level has not been well studied.

In this paper, we review lessons learned about Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in middle-income countries, with specific reference to achievements and challenges observed during recent years in four middle-income to upper-middle-income countries – Mexico, Turkey, The Republic of Korea and Ukraine. Three of these countries – Mexico, the Republic of Korea, Turkey are members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Ukraine has aspired to join Western institutions like the OECD since its independence in 1991.

Serological studies rely on the recruitment of representative cohorts; however, such efforts are specially complicated by the conditions surrounding the COVID19 pandemic. We aimed to design and implement a fully remote methodology for conducting safe serological surveys that also allow for the engagement of representative study populations. This design was well-received and effective. 2,066 participants ≥18 years old were enrolled, reflecting the ethnic and racial composition of Massachusetts.