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For the first time in the modern era of tuberculosis control, the WHO's End TB strategy specifically integrates socioeconomic support for people affected by tuberculosis with existing biomedical interventions. However, there is little evidence of the impact of this approach on tuberculosis outcomes. We designed and implemented one of the world's first tuberculosis-specific socioeconomic support interventions, assessed its impact on tuberculosis prevention measures and treatment success, and refined the support for use in the Community Randomized Evaluation of a Socioeconomic Intervention to Prevent Tuberculosis (CRESIPT) project. This unmasked household-randomised controlled study was done in 32 peri-urban shanty towns in Callao, Peru. Households with patients treated for tuberculosis by Peru's Tuberculosis Program were randomly assigned (1:1, computer-assisted randomisation) to receive the Peruvian Tuberculosis Program standard of care (control group) or to additionally receive socioeconomic support (intervention group). Socioeconomic support consisted of conditional cash transfers (≤US$230) and social support (household visits and community meetings). Primary outcome was initiation of tuberculosis preventive therapy in contacts younger than 20 years available for follow-up assessment. 400 contacts were needed for 80% power at the 95% (two-sided) confidence level to detect a 50% increase in the primary outcome. Secondary outcome was treatment success in patients with tuberculosis by intention to treat. Ethics approval was given by the ethics committees of DIRESA Callao (Regional Ministry of Health) and Asociación Benéfica PRISMA, Lima, Peru, and Imperial College London, UK. All participants gave written informed consent. This study has been registered with the ISCTRN registry, number pending. From Feb 10 to Aug 14, 2014, 282 patients (410 eligible contacts) were recruited. 135 patients were randomised to the intervention group (206 eligible contacts) and 147 to the control group (204 eligible contacts). Follow-up continued to June 30, 2015. Compared with controls, intervention contacts were more likely to start preventive therapy (91/206 [44%] vs 53/204 [26%], adjusted odds ratio 2·2 [95% CI 1·1–4·2]; p=0·02); and intervention patients were more likely to have treatment success (87 [64%] vs 78 [53%], 1·8 [1·1–2·9]; p=0·02). Tuberculosis-specific socioeconomic support improved initiation of tuberculosis preventive therapy and treatment success. The CRESIPT study will now evaluate the impact of this socioeconomic support on tuberculosis control. Joint Global Health Trials consortium of Wellcome Trust, Medical Research Council, and Department For International Development; British Infection Association; Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; Innovation For Health And Development; Wellcome Trust.

To evaluate the impact of socioeconomic support on tuberculosis preventive therapy initiation in household contacts of tuberculosis patients and on treatment success in patients. A non-blinded, household-randomized, controlled study was performed between February 2014 and June 2015 in 32 shanty towns in Peru. It included patients being treated for tuberculosis and their household contacts. Households were randomly assigned to either the standard of care provided by Peru's national tuberculosis programme (control arm) or the same standard of care plus socioeconomic support (intervention arm). Socioeconomic support comprised conditional cash transfers up to 230 United States dollars per household, community meetings and household visits. Rates of tuberculosis preventive therapy initiation and treatment success (i.e. cure or treatment completion) were compared in intervention and control arms. Overall, 282 of 312 (90%) households agreed to participate: 135 in the intervention arm and 147 in the control arm. There were 410 contacts younger than 20 years: 43% in the intervention arm initiated tuberculosis preventive therapy versus 25% in the control arm (adjusted odds ratio, aOR: 2.2; 95% confidence interval, CI: 1.1-4.1). An intention-to-treat analysis showed that treatment was successful in 64% (87/135) of patients in the intervention arm versus 53% (78/147) in the control arm (unadjusted OR: 1.6; 95% CI: 1.0-2.6). These improvements were equitable, being independent of household poverty. A tuberculosis-specific, socioeconomic support intervention increased uptake of tuberculosis preventive therapy and tuberculosis treatment success and is being evaluated in the Community Randomized Evaluation of a Socioeconomic Intervention to Prevent TB (CRESIPT) project.

Background Cash transfers are key interventions in the World Health Organisation’s post-2015 global TB policy. However, evidence guiding TB-specific cash transfer implementation is limited. We designed, implemented and refined a novel TB-specific socioeconomic intervention that included cash transfers, which aimed to support TB prevention and cure in resource-constrained shantytowns in Lima, Peru for: the Community Randomized Evaluation of a Socioeconomic Intervention to Prevent TB (CRESIPT) project. Methods Newly-diagnosed TB patients from study-site healthposts were eligible to receive the intervention consisting of economic and social support . Economic support was provided to patient households through cash transfers on meeting the following conditions: screening for TB in household contacts and MDR TB in patients; adhering to TB treatment and chemoprophylaxis; and engaging with CRESIPT social support (household visits and community meetings). To evaluate project acceptability, quantitative and qualitative feedback was collected using a mixed-methods approach during formative activities. Formative activities included consultations, focus group discussions and questionnaires conducted with the project team, project participants, civil society and stakeholders. Results Over 7 months, 135 randomly-selected patients and their 647 household contacts were recruited from 32 impoverished shantytown communities. Of 1299 potential cash transfers, 964 (74 %) were achieved, 259 (19 %) were not achieved, and 76 (7 %) were yet to be achieved. Of those achieved, 885/964 (92 %) were achieved optimally and 79/964 (8 %) sub-optimally. Key project successes were identified during 135 formative activities and included: strong multi-sectorial collaboration; generation of new evidence for TB-specific cash transfer; and the project being perceived as patient-centred and empowering. Challenges included: participant confidence being eroded through cash transfer delays, hidden account-charges and stigma; access to the initial bank-provider being limited; and conditions requiring participation of all TB-affected household members (e.g. community meetings) being hard to achieve. Refinements were made to improve project acceptability and future impact: the initial bank-provider was changed; conditional and unconditional cash transfers were combined; cash transfer sums were increased to a locally-appropriate, evidence-based amount; and cash transfer size varied according to patient household size to maximally reduce mitigation of TB-related costs and be more responsive to household needs. Conclusions A novel TB-specific socioeconomic intervention including conditional cash transfers has been designed, implemented, refined and is ready for impact assessment, including by the CRESIPT project. The lessons learnt during this research will inform policy-makers and decision-makers for future implementation of related interventions.

Poverty drives tuberculosis (TB) rates but the approach to TB control has been disproportionately biomedical. In 2015, the World Health Organization’s End TB Strategy explicitly identified the need to address the social determinants of TB through socio-economic interventions. However, evidence concerning poverty reduction and cost mitigation strategies is limited. The research described in this article, based on the 2016 Royal College of Physicians Linacre Lecture, aimed to address this knowledge gap. The research was divided into two phases: the first phase was an analysis of a cohort study identifying TB-related costs of TB-affected households and creating a clinically relevant threshold above which those costs became catastrophic; the second was the design, implementation and evaluation of a household randomised controlled evaluation of socio-economic support to improve access to preventive therapy, increase TB cure, and mitigate the effects of catastrophic costs. The first phase showed TB remains a disease of people living in poverty – ‘free’ TB care was unaffordable for impoverished TB-affected households and incurring catastrophic costs was associated with as many adverse TB treatment outcomes (including death, failure of treatment, lost to follow-up and TB recurrence) as multidrug resistant (MDR) TB. The second phase showed that, in TB-affected households receiving socio-economic support, household contacts were more likely to start and adhere to TB preventive therapy, TB patients were more likely to be cured and households were less likely to incur catastrophic costs. In impoverished Peruvian shantytowns, poverty remains inextricably linked with TB and incurring catastrophic costs predicted adverse TB treatment outcome. A novel socio-economic support intervention increased TB preventive therapy uptake, improved TB treatment success and reduced catastrophic costs. The impact of the intervention on TB control is currently being evaluated by the Community Randomized Evaluation of a Socio-economic Intervention to Prevent TB (CRESIPT) study.

Metodos Entre febrero de 2014 y junio de 2015, se realizo un estudio controlado, aleatorizado, domestico y no cegado en 32 barrios bajos de Peru. En este estudio se incluyeron pacientes que estaban siendo tratados contra la tuberculosis y sus contactos domesticos. Los hogares se asignaron de forma aleatoria a la atencion estandar ofrecida por el programa nacional contra la tuberculosis de Peru (grupo de control) o bien a la misma atencion estandar pero con un apoyo socioeconomico (grupo de intervencion). El apoyo socioeconomico consisti'a en transferencias de efectivo condicionadas de hasta 230 dolares estadounidenses por hogar, visitas domesticas y reuniones comunitarias. Se compararon los grupos de control y de intervention en cuanto a las tasas de initiation a la terapia preventiva contra la tuberculosis y al exito del tratamiento (es decir, la cura o la finalizacion del tratamiento).

Poverty drives tuberculosis (TB) rates but the approach to TB control has been disproportionately biomedical. In 2015, the World Health Organization's End TB Strategy explicitly identified the need to address the social determinants of TB through socio-economic interventions. However, evidence concerning poverty reduction and cost mitigation strategies is limited. The research described in this article, based on the 2016 Royal College of Physicians Linacre Lecture, aimed to address this knowledge gap. The research was divided into two phases: the first phase was an analysis of a cohort study identifying TB-related costs of TB-affected households and creating a clinically relevant threshold above which those costs became catastrophic; the second was the design, implementation and evaluation of a household randomised controlled evaluation of socio-economic support to improve access to preventive therapy, increase TB cure, and mitigate the effects of catastrophic costs. The first phase showed TB remains a disease of people living in poverty – ‘free’ TB care was unaffordable for impoverished TB-affected households and incurring catastrophic costs was associated with as many adverse TB treatment outcomes (including death, failure of treatment, lost to follow-up and TB recurrence) as multidrug resistant (MDR) TB. The second phase showed that, in TB-affected households receiving socio-economic support, household contacts were more likely to start and adhere to TB preventive therapy, TB patients were more likely to be cured and households were less likely to incur catastrophic costs. In impoverished Peruvian shantytowns, poverty remains inextricably linked with TB and incurring catastrophic costs predicted adverse TB treatment outcome. A novel socio-economic support intervention increased TB preventive therapy uptake, improved TB treatment success and reduced catastrophic costs. The impact of the intervention on TB control is currently being evaluated by the Community Randomized Evaluation of a Socio-economic Intervention to Prevent TB (CRESIPT) study.

The award is given for contributions to journalism and named for the late Marshall University sports information director and broadcaster Gene Morehouse, who died in the 1970 airplane crash that claimed the lives of 75 Marshall football players, coaches, staff and fans. A native of New Martinsville and a graduate of Magnolia High School, Antonik received a degree in journalism and a master's degree in sports management from WVU. In 2008, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Magnolia High School, and in 2010, he was the recipient of the Paul B. (Buck) Martin Award, presented by the WVU Alumni Association to someone who has helped preserve and maintain WVU's traditions.

WHEELING - Two of the top defensive players in Minnesota Vikings history will be the 2017 inductees into the West Virginia Sports Hall of Fame. Warwick made his name as the middle linebacker and four-time leading team tackler on the legendary Vikings Purple People Eaters defensive unit of the late 1960s and early '70s, considered one of the NFL's all-time top units. In 1983-84, he was on the coaching staff of the Denver Gold of...

Last spring, [John Lowery] not only guided his team to a state-record 11th state Class AAA title, but the 37-2 record the Cougars posted was the program's best mark for the state's all-sport winningest coach. Lowery entered this spring with a 1,222-319-3 record, the third most wins in U.S. history. Lowery, the first all-sport prep coach of the year cited for baseball, said his title-winning squad was an \"unselfish group that won its final 19 games and defeated Nitro 2-1 in the state finals. A three-sport athlete and football quarterback, Andrew King was a four-year regular infielder. Three other seniors went on to college baseball - shortstop Paul Witt, a first-team all-stater at Virginia Commonwealth; center fielder Will Oliver at Davis & Elkins; and pitcher Brad Davis at Potomac State. The Mohigans survived a minefield schedule in a 27-0 record campaign, the eighth perfect record in state tournament history and first in Triple-A since Stonewall Jackson in 1985. In the finals, Morgantown had to go overtime to dethrone two-time champion Huntington. In the tourney, and regular season, the Mohigans left no doubt by defeating six of the other top seven tourney seeds. Besides Huntington, other season victims included Capital, [Woodrow Wilson], Martinsburg, Parkersburg South and Hurricane.

WHEELING - Two national hall of fame honorees from the Mountain State will be the 2016 inductees into the West Virginia Sports Hall of Fame. Larry Shaw and Curt Warner will be enshrined by the West Virginia Sports Writers Association at the 70th annual Victory Awards Dinner on May 15 at the Charleston Civic Center Coliseum. During Shaw's 31-year tenure as Bears coach, Oak Glen had a 330-96-4 dual-meet record while winning 13 Ohio Valley Athletic Conference dual-meet titles. In the nation's largest high school conference wrestling tournament, Shaw guided nine class champions, including eight straight, and five overall crowns. The Shady Spring native is one of only five state coaches, and the only wrestling mentor, inducted into the National High School Sports Hall of Fame and has won numerous other honors: National Wrestling Hall of Fame, Ohio Valley Athletic Conference Hall of Fame, Lou Holtz Upper Ohio Valley Hall of Fame, Raleigh County Wrestling Hall of Fame, and was the Upper Ohio Valley Dapper Dan Co-Man of the Year for 2003.