Objectives The aim of this study was to determine the length of delays and to investigate the factors associated with patient (care-seeking) and health-system (treatment initiation following care-seeking) delays, among smearpositive tuberculosis patients in Kunar province, Afghanistan, as delay in diagnosis and treatment results in more severe disease, higher mortality, and a longer period of infectivity in the community. Methods A cross-sectional study of 122 new smearpositive pulmonary tuberculosis patients, aged C15 years, registered at a hospital and a clinic in Kunar province, was conducted from

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Afghanistan has made progress moving closer to eliminating polio. The program struggles to reach all children because of management and accountability problems in the field, inaccessible populations, and inadequate social mobilization. Consequently, too many children are missed during SIAs. Afghanistan adopted a national emergency action plan in 2012 to address these issues, but national elimination will require consistent and complete implementation of proven strategies.

MethodsIn this study, we compared incidence rate, number of notified incident cases of smear-positive pulmonary tuberculosis per 100,000 populations, in the males and females national cohorts for 2005 in Afghanistan [18]. The global TB control report, which contains data on Abstract Background: In general, tuberculosis rate is higher among men than women globally. The reason for the sex difference in the rate is not clear. The purpose of this study is to examine sex difference in the incidence of smearpositive pulmonary Tuberculosis (TB) in Afghanistan and to discuss it from socio cultural perspectives. Methods:Patients with smear-positive pulmonary tuberculosis were identified by all health facilities capable to diagnose tuberculosis, throughout Afghanistan. Age-specific incidence rates of smear positive pulmonary tuberculosis for males and females census cohorts of 2005 were compared.Results: Of the 9,949 smear-positive TB cases identified during 2005, 3,131 (31.5%) were male and 6,818 (68.5%) were female. The annual incidence rates (per 100, 000 population) of TB were 60.0 for female population and 26.7 for male population. In all the age groups, except those aged more than 65 years, those rates were higher for females than for males. Conclusions:Based on the national registration data, for all the age groups equal to or under 65 years old in Afghanistan, the incidence rates of pulmonary TB are higher in females than in males. Possible factors contributing to this observation are discussed.

Objective: To describe differences by country-level income in COVID-19 cases, deaths, case-fatality rates, incidence rates, and death rates per million population. Methods: Publicly available data on COVID-19 cases and deaths from December 31, 2019 to June 3, 2020 were analyzed. Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to examine associations of country-level income with COVID-19 cases, deaths, case-fatality rates, incidence rates, and death rates. Results: A total of 380,803 deaths out of 6,348,204 COVID-19 cases were reported from 210 countries and territories globally in the period under study, and the global case-fatality rate was 6.0%. Of the total globally reported cases and deaths, the percentages of cases and deaths were 59.9% and 75.0% for high-income countries, and 30.9% and 20.7% for upper-middle-income countries. Countries in higher-income categories had higher incidence rates and death rates. Between April and May, the incidence rates in higher-income groups of countries decreased, but in other groups, it increased. Conclusions In the first five months of the COVID-19 pandemic, most cases and deaths were reported from high-income and upper-middle-income countries, and those countries had higher incidence rates and death rates per million population than did lower-middle and low-income countries. Keywords: COVID-19, incidence rate, death rate, case fatality rate, income, and country