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  1. Case Definitions/

Open Syndrome Tuberculosis

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.