Open Syndrome Tuberculosis
Table of Contents
Authors: ECDC
Location: Europe
Purpose #
The definition #
Any person with the following two: — Signs, symptoms and/or radiological findings consistent with active tuberculosis in any site AND — A clinician’s decision to treat the person with a full course of anti-tuberculosis therapy OR A case discovered post-mortem with pathological findings consistent with active tuberculosis that would have indicated anti-tuberculosis antibiotic treatment had the patient been diagnosed before dying
Machine-readable definition #
The definition is available in JSON format following the Open Syndrome v1.0 specification:
{
"category": "suspected",
"definition_type": "case_definition",
"description": "",
"human_readable_definition": "Any person with the following two:\n— Signs, symptoms and/or radiological findings consistent with active tuberculosis in any site\nAND\n— A clinician's decision to treat the person with a full course of anti-tuberculosis therapy\nOR\nA case discovered post-mortem with pathological findings consistent with active tuberculosis that would have indicated\nanti-tuberculosis antibiotic treatment had the patient been diagnosed before dying",
"inclusion_criteria": [
{
"logical_operator": "AND",
"type": "criterion",
"values": [
{
"name": "Signs, symptoms and/or radiological findings consistent with active tuberculosis in any site",
"type": "symptom"
},
{
"logical_operator": "OR",
"type": "criterion",
"values": [
{
"name": "A clinician's decision to treat the person with a full course of anti-tuberculosis therapy",
"type": "professional_judgment"
},
{
"name": "A case discovered post-mortem with pathological findings consistent with active tuberculosis that would have indicated anti-tuberculosis antibiotic treatment had the patient been diagnosed before dying",
"type": "professional_judgment"
}
]
}
]
}
],
"keywords": [
"Tuberculosis",
"Europe"
],
"language": "English",
"location": "Europe",
"open_syndrome_version": "1.0.0",
"organization": "ECDC",
"published_at": "2025-02-08T18:51:19Z",
"published_by": [
"Open Syndrome Initiative"
],
"published_in": "https://opensyndrome.org",
"references": [
{
"url": "https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32018D0945\u0026from=EN"
}
],
"scope": "broad",
"status": "draft",
"target_public_health_threats": [
"Tuberculosis"
],
"title": "Open Syndrome Tuberculosis",
"version": "1.0.0"
}
Using the Definition #
Healthcare organizations can implement this definition through:
- Direct integration with surveillance systems
- API endpoints for real-time validation
- Manual case verification processes
Next Steps #
We encourage:
- Clinical feedback on the definition criteria
- Technical feedback on the implementation format
- Suggestions for additional symptoms or signs
- Reports of implementation experiences
Get Involved #
We welcome contributions and feedback from the community.