About the Authors

Nino Lomtadze

Affiliation National Center for Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases, Tbilisi, Georgia

Lali Kupreishvili

Affiliation National Center for Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases, Tbilisi, Georgia

Archil Salakaia

Affiliation National Center for Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases, Tbilisi, Georgia

Sergo Vashakidze

Affiliation National Center for Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases, Tbilisi, Georgia

Lali Sharvadze

Affiliation Infectious Diseases, AIDS and Clinical Immunology Research Center, Tbilisi, Georgia

Russell R. Kempker

Affiliation Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America

Matthew J. Magee

Affiliation Department of Epidemiology, Rollins School of Public Health of Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America

Carlos del Rio

Affiliations Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America, Hubert Department of Global Health, Rollins School of Public Health of Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America

Henry M. Blumberg

henry.m.blumberg@emory.edu

Affiliations Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America, Hubert Department of Global Health, Rollins School of Public Health of Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America, Department of Epidemiology, Rollins School of Public Health of Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: NL LK AS SV HMB. Performed the experiments: NL LK LS. Analyzed the data: NL RRK MJM HMB. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: CdR HMB. Wrote the manuscript: NL RRK MJM HMB. Reviewed the manuscript and approved its submission to PLoS ONE: NL LK AS SV LS RRK MJM CdR HMB.