Biography
Mark Fajans is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Epidemiology at University of Washington, where his research focuses on novel diagnostics for pediatric tuberculosis. He worked as an epidemiologist with the Global Tuberculosis Prevention & Control Branch in the Division of Global HIV and TB at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He received a Master’s in Public Health from Emory University with a focus in global epidemiology.
Key Impacts
Urine lipoarabinomannan concentrations among children living with and without HIV with clinically diagnosed TB disease in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
In a predominantly HIV-negative cohort of children, the diagnostic performance of ECL-LAM fell below WHO target thresholds even for a non-sputum, point-of-care test (65% sensitivity and 98% specificity). While urine may be an attractive specimen for pediatric TB diagnosis, current antibodies used for uLAM may have limited value in HIV-negative children.
Source: Conference 2024
Estimating the effect of implementing novel diagnostics in adults and children on pediatric TB indicators in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Impact details available upon request.
Source: Conference 2024