Christina Mergenthaler

Staff

In my position as a junior adviser within the epidemiology team, I offer my experience in data management, statistical analysis of quantitative data, infectious disease epidemiology and control in developing countries.

Working at KIT provides many opportunities to apply these skills to a variety of infectious disease projects, although I am pleased to continue cultivating technical expertise in research projects focused on the many continuously evolving facets of tuberculosis case finding and control.

Publications

TB Hackathon: Development and Comparison of Five Models to Predict Subnational Tuberculosis Prevalence in Pakistan

Pakistan’s national tuberculosis control programme is among the many programmes worldwide that value the importance of subnational tuberculosis (TB) burden estimates to support disease control efforts, but do not have reliable estimates.TB Hackathon: Development and Comparison of Five Models to Predict Subnational Tuberculosis Prevalence in Pakistan. Against this backdrop, the Pakistan NTP partnered with KIT epidemiologists to launch a virtual hackathon to estimate the subnational TB burden in Pakistan.

Authors

S Alba , E.J.J Rood, F Mecatti, J.M Ross, P.J Dodd, S Chang, M Potgieter, G Bertarelli, N.J Henry , K.E LeGrand, W Trouleau, D Shaweno, P MacPherson, Z Zhen Qin, C Mergenthaler , F Giardina , E Augustijn , A Quadir Baloch, A Latif

Year of Publication

2022

Downloads
Download TB Hackathon: Development and Comparison of Five Models to Predict Subnational Tuberculosis Prevalence in Pakistan
Completeness of TB notification: inventory studies and capture-recapture analyses, six European Union countries, 2014 to 2016

In 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) published the Action Framework towards TB elimination in low-incidence countries, and in 2016, the WHO Regional Office for Europe (WHO/Europe) published the Roadmap to implement the tuberculosis action plan for the WHO European Region 2016-2020: Towards ending TB and multidrug-resistant tuberculosis. They outline blueprints to carry out the WHO’s global End TB Strategy in Europe and to reach the sustainable development goal (SDG) target for tuberculosis (TB). Key strategic targets include reduction of global TB incidence by 80% in 2030 and 90% in 2035, compared with 2015. In the WHO European Region, the targets include a 25% reduction in TB incidence rate by the year 2020 compared with 2016. TB incidence can be derived from TB notification rates, assuming complete case detection and reporting. This is considered a strong assumption unlikely to hold in many settings, including European Union (EU) countries. Several studies across the EU/EEA, e.g. those from France, Spain, Italy and Romania, have revealed high rates of under-reporting.

Authors

M. Straetemans, M. Bakker, S. Alba, C. Mergenthaler, E. Rood

Year of Publication

2020

Downloads
Download Completeness of TB notification
Completeness of TB notification: inventory studies and capture-recapture analyses, six European Union countries, 2014 to 2016

Assessing the completeness of TB notification to determine whether national data truly reflects the real TB situation in selected EU Member states.

Authors

M Staetemans, M. L Bakker, S Alba, E.J.J. Rood, C Mergenthaler, P.H. Andersen, H Schimmel, A Simunovic , P Svetina, C Carvalho, O Lyytikäinen , I Abubakar, R. J Harris, C Ködmön, M.J. van der Werf, R van Hest

Year of Publication

2020

Downloads
Download Completeness of tuberculosis (TB) notification: inventory studies and capture-recapture analyses, six European Union countries, 2014 to 2016
The TB REACH Initiative: Supporting TB Elimination Efforts in the Asia-Pacific

After many years of TB ‘control’ and incremental progress, the TB community is talking about ending the disease, yet this will only be possible with a shift in the way we approach the TB response. While the Asia-Pacific region has the highest TB burden worldwide, it also has the opportunity to lead the quest to end TB by embracing the four areas laid out in this series: using data to target hotspots, initiating active case finding, provisioning preventive TB treatment, and employing a biosocial approach. This paper presents several approaches TB REACH is taking to support its partners in the Asia-Pacific and globally to advance our collective response to end TB.

Authors

J Creswell, A Khan, M.I Bakker, M Brouwer, V.V Kamineni, C Mergenthaler, M Smelyanskaya, Z.Z Qin, O Ramis, R Stevens, K.S Reddy, L Blok

Year of Publication

2020

Downloads
Download The TB REACH Initiative: Supporting TB Elimination Efforts in the Asia-Pacific
Lies, damned lies and epidemiology: why global health needs good epidemiological practice guidelines

Epidemiology is the cornerstone of global health. It shapes policy decisions and evidence-based practice by identifying disease risk factors and preventive healthcare targets.

Authors

S Alba, C Mergenthaler

Year of Publication

2018

Links
Download the PDF
Downloads
A Spatial Analysis Framework to Monitor and Accelerate Progress towards SDG 3 to End TB in Bangladesh

Global efforts to end the tuberculosis (TB) epidemic by 2030 (SDG3.3) through improved TB case detection and treatment have not been effective to significantly reduce the global burden of the TB epidemic.

Authors

E. Rood, A.H. Khan, P.K. Modak , C. Mergenthaler, M. van Gurp, L. Blok, M. Bakker

Year of Publication

2018

Downloads
Download Spatial Analysis Framework Paper_Dec 2018
Quick Scan: Key Actors in Gender and Mining in the Netherlands and Internationally

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in exploring and working on gender and mining issues in artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) as well as in the formal larger-scale mining (LSM) sector. Many international stakeholders have become active in this field, such as the World Bank, and UN Women in particular via its East and Southern Africa Office in Kenya. Also Dutch and international civil society organizations are working on different projects and initiatives of which some are financed by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA).

Authors

Katrine Danielsen , Jennifer Hinton , Chloe Vaast

Year of Publication

2017

Links
Download the Quick Scan
Downloads
Download QUICK SCAN GENDER AND MINING
MATCH: Mapping and Analysis for Tailored Disease Control and Health System Strengthening

This manual is an initiative of the Stop TB partnership, funded by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, and written by the Centre for Applied Spatial Epidemiology (CASE) of KIT Royal Tropical Institute.

Authors

Mirjam Bakker, Ente Rood, Christina Mergenthaler, Lucie Blok, Margo van Gurp, Masja Straetemans, Sandra Alba

Year of Publication

2017

Downloads
Download The MATCH Manual 2018

Rood E, Mergenthaler C, Bakker M, Redwood L, Mitchell E. Using 15 DHS surveys to study epidemiologic correlates of TB courtesy stigma and health seeking behavior. (Submitted to Int J Tuberc Lung Dis, December 2016)
Wohlleben J, Makhmudova M, Saidova F, Azamova, Mergenthaler C, Verver S. Risk factors associated with loss to follow-up from tuberculosis treatment in Tajikistan: a case-control study. (Submitted to BMC Infectious Diseases, November 2016)
Sanaie A, Mergenthaler C, Nasrat A, Seddiq MK, Mahmoodi SD, Stevens RH, Creswell J. (2016) An Evaluation of Passive and Active Approaches to Improve Tuberculosis Notifications in Afghanistan. PLoS ONE 11(10): e0163813. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0163813. (Corresponding Author)
Creswell J, Khowaja S, Codlin A, Hashmi R, Rasheed E, Khan M, Durab I, Mergenthaler C, Hussain O, Khan F, Khan A. (2014) An Evaluation of Systematic Tuberculosis Screening at Private Facilities in Karachi, Pakistan. PLoS ONE 9(4): e93858. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0093858.
Creswell J, Sahu S, Blok L, Bakker MI, Stevens R, et al. (2014) A Multi-Site Evaluation of Innovative Approaches to Increase Tuberculosis Case Notification: Summary Results. PloS ONE 9(4): e94465. doi:10.1371/journq1`2al.pone.0094465. (Acknowledgement)
Creswell J, Codlin A, Andre E, Micek M, Bedru A, et al. (2014) Results from early programmatic implementation of Xpert MTB/RIF testing in nine countries. BMC Infectious Diseases 14(2). doi:10.1186/1471-2334-14-2. (Acknowledgement)
Blok L, Creswell J, Stevens R, Brouwer M, Ramis O, et al. (2014) A pragmatic approach to measuring, monitoring and evaluating interventions for improved tuberculosis case detection. International Health 6(2). doi:10.1093/inthealth/ihu055. (Acknowledgement)
Mergenthaler C, Bakker M, Blok L, Sahu S, Ramis O, Creswell J. Comparing two years of active case finding results from 11 interventions. PC-455-01. 44th World Conference on Lung Health of the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union); 2013 Nov 1; Paris, France.
Creswell J, Sahu S, Mergenthaler C, Bakker M, Ramis O, Blok L. Early experiences from 33 implementers of Xpert MTB/RIF testing in 18 countries. PC-503-01. 44th World Conference on Lung Health of the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union); 2013 Nov 1; Paris, France.

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