Using SMS Reminders, Phone Calls and Money Incentives to Enhance Linkage to Care of Presumptive...
TuberculosisThe major challenge in meeting the WHO's End TB Strategy- reducing tuberculosis (TB) deaths by 90% and incidence by 80% is the cascading patient loss-to-follow-up (LTFU) along the continuum of TB care. A systematic review found high levels of pre-treatment LTFU-ranging from 4 to 38%, and was higher in sub-Saharan Africa (18%) compared to Asia (13%). Consequences of pre-diagnosis and pre-treatment LTFU are; untreated TB patients are infectious and can transmit TB to others and not starting TB treatment at all, causes high morbidity and mortality. Therefore, monitoring outcomes of presumptive TB patients is equally important as monitoring treatment outcomes. Short message service (SMS), phone calls and mobile money (MM) incentives have shown promise by improving health outcomes such as uptake of immunization, adherence to TB treatment and antiretroviral therapy (ART). However, there is limited knowledge their effect in increasing linkage to care and treatment for presumptive TB patients in Uganda and sub-Saharan Africa. The aim of this study is therefore to leverage SMS reminders, phone call and MM incentives in improving linkage to care of presumptive TB patients. This will be a five arm multi-center individual randomized controlled trial implemented in selected high-volume health facilities in Uganda among 1548 presumptive TB patients. The study population will be presumptive TB patients aged 18 years and above identified within the study facilities who do not complete TB diagnosis same day. Completion of TB diagnosis will refer to submitting a sample and obtaining results from the test. Our hypothesis is that using SMS reminders, phone call and Mobile Money incentives will result in increase in the proportion of presumptive TB patients that complete diagnosis and pre-treatment TB cases that initiate treatment.
Comparing Treatment Completion Of Daily Rifapentine & Isoniazid For One Month (1HP) To Weekly High...
HIV SeropositivityTuberculosis1 moreA multicenter, randomized, stratified, open-label, phase IV trial among HIV-positive persons (PLHIV) on antiretroviral therapy (ART), or HIV-negative household contacts of patients with rifampicin-sensitive pulmonary tuberculosis (TB), who do not have evidence of active TB.
BCG Revaccination in Children and Adolescents
Tuberculosis InfectionTuberculosisBacille Calmette Guerin (BCG) vaccine is one of the most used vaccines of the world, to reduce the risks of natural tuberculous infection. The efficacy of BCG vaccination in newborns is well known and has a documented protective effect against meningitis and disseminated TB in children. However, there is considerable uncertainty on BCG revaccination. It is known that BCG revaccination enhances immune responses, but it is yet to be established if BCG revaccination can help prevent TB disease in household contacts. The primary aim of this study is to assess the efficacy of BCG revaccination compared to oral chemoprophylaxis in preventing TB disease in house hold contacts aged 6-18 years. The study is designed as a multicentre randomised controlled trial with two groups of healthy household contacts aged 6-18 years receiving either the BCG vaccine or oral chemoprophylaxis. They will be followed up for 24 months to compare the incidence of TB disease in each arm.
Biodistribution and Pharmacokinetics of Pretomanid in Tuberculosis Patients Using 18F-Pretomanid...
TuberculosisThis is an observational study that will examine the pretomanid pharmacokinetics (PK) in tuberculosis (TB) patients. Dynamic 18F-pretomanid PET/CT will be performed after intravenous injection of 18F-pretomanid to determine multi-compartment, noninvasive determination of pretomanid PK in TB patients.
Gene Expression Profiles in Spinal Tuberculosis.
TuberculosisSpinal15 moreTuberculosis (TB) is one of the top ten causes of death worldwide with approximately 10 million cases globally and 1.2 million deaths. Sub-Saharan Africa carries the highest burden of TB. South Africa has one of the highest HIV and TB rates worldwide with an HIV prevalence rate in adults of 19% and a TB case notification rate of 615/100,000 in 2019. Over many years, focus has been paid to pulmonary TB and extrapulmonary TB (EPTB) has received only little attention even though it accounts for almost a quatre of all TB cases. The diagnosis of EPTB remains challenging simply because sample collection requires invasive procedures in the absence of a blood-based diagnostic test. Spinal TB (spondylitis or spondylodiscitis caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis) - often known as Pott's disease - accounts for up to 10% of EPTB and affects young children, people with HIV-coinfection and elderly, and often leads to lifelong debilitating disease due to devastating deformation of the spine and compression of neural structures. Little is known with regards to the extent of disease and isolated TB spine as well as a disseminated form of TB spine have been described. The latter presents with a spinal manifestation plus disseminations to other organs such as the lungs, pleura, lymph nodes, the GIT or urinary tract or even the brain. In the Spinal TB X cohort, the investigators aim to describe the clinical phenotype of spinal TB using whole body PET/CT and identify a specific gene expression profile for the different stages of dissemination and compare findings to previously described signatures for latent and active pulmonary TB. A blood-based test for spinal TB would lead to earlier diagnosis and treatment in all settings globally and improve treatment outcome of this devastating disease.
A Prospective Observational Study on the Role of Transthoracic Ultrasound in Differentiating Tuberculous...
Pleural EffusionTuberculosis2 morePrimary Endpoint To assess the prevalence and diagnostic performance of pre-determined echographic features in predicting the diagnosis of TBE from MPE. To determine the clinical, pleural fluid and echographic parameters that were different among TBE and MPE and to establish a clinical prediction model for TBE. Secondary Endpoint To assess the correlation between pleural fluid parameters with ultrasound and medical thoracoscopic finding. To assess the optimal Pf ADA cut-off value to differentiate TBE from MPE in our region.
Cough Audio Classification as a TB Triage Test
TuberculosisTB is the single biggest infectious cause of death (1.5 million died in 2018), killing more HIV-positive people than any other disease, and is arguably the most important poverty-related disease in the world. TB's estimated incidence in Africa has been declining over recent years but progress is slow and plateauing. To avert stagnation, truly innovative and ambitious technologies are needed, especially those that improve case finding and time-to-diagnosis as, in mathematical models based on the TB care cascade framework, interventions that accomplish this will have the most impact on disrupting population-level transmission, including when deployed at facilities where patients are readily accessible. Critically, these interventions (triage tests) must promote access to confirmatory testing (e.g., Xpert MTB/RIF Ultra) by enabling patients to be referred rapidly and efficiently during the same visit. The investigators will optimise and evaluate a technology that, aside from the investigators early case-controlled study to show feasibility, is hitherto not meaningfully investigated for TB. This gap is alarming given, on one hand, the enormity of the TB epidemic and the need for a triage test and, on the other hand, promising proofs-of-concept that demonstrate high diagnostic accuracy of cough audio classifier for respiratory diseases such as pneumonia, asthma. pertussis, croup, and COPD. In some cases, these classification systems are CE-marked, awaiting FDA-approval, and subject to late-stage clinical trials. This demonstrates the promise of the underlying technological principle. CAGE-TB's innovation is further enhanced by: applying advanced machine learning methods that the team have specifically developed for TB patient cough audio analysis, use of mixed methods research - drawing from health economics, implementation science, and medical anthropology - to inform product design and assess barriers and facilitators to implementation, and uniquely for a TB diagnostic test, its potential deployment as a pure mHealth (smartphone-based) innovation that mitigates many barriers that typically jeopardise TPP criteria fulfilment.
New Genomic Techniques and Management of Multidrug-resistant Tuberculosis
Multi-Drug Resistant TuberculosisIn the context of the emergence of cases of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) it is crucial to improve patient's management. Therefore, assessing the place of innovative strategies enabling the diagnosis of those cases (e.g. WGS and Deeplex-MycTB) in the personalized care of patients with MDR-TB and the rationalization of medical biology procedures is a major issue. This project participates to these goals since the investigators will : (i) assess the diagnostic qualities and the performance of the different innovatives strategies enabling detection of resistance to anti-tuberculosis drugs, (ii) assess the impact of these strategies in the implementation of personalized treatments for MDR-TB patients, and (iii) assess the overall costs of these strategies.
The Impact of Malnutrition on Immune Responses to Tuberculosis
MalnutritionChild1 moreThe aim of this study is to assess immune responses to Mtb in children with MAM compared to well-nourished children and to evaluate the impact of a nutrition intervention on these immune responses.
Rifampicin Resistance in S. Aureus During and After Treatment for Latent Tuberculosis
Latent TuberculosisStaphylococcus AureusTwo commonly used treatments for latent tuberculosis infection are either 4 months rifampicin or 6-9 months isoniazid. The invistigators will study the risk of acquisition of rifampicin resistance in commensal Staphylococcus aureus in persons treated with rifampicin versus in persons treated with isoniazide. Through repeated swab cultures before, during, and after treatment the investigators will also investigate potential accumulation of mutations associated with rifampicin resistance over time. Finally, household contacts to persons with rifampicin-resistant S. aureus will be examined to investigate whether onward transmission of rifampicin-resistant S. aureus occurs within households.