UofG-lead research team tracks new ways to tackle tuberculosis transmission in Africa

Tuberculosis (TB) is the leading infectious killer globally. In Africa, TB is becoming increasingly concentrated in densely populated cities, often driven by HIV infection, and poor, crowded living conditions. New TB drugs, vaccines, and diagnostics are now being tested in Africa, but methods for measuring their impact on public health are lacking.

 If the bold aims of this project are successful, we anticipate that the impact could be transformative for efforts to end TB, and might even be used for other infections targeted for elimination. We hope that our methods will guide better-targeted screening and prevention interventions and discover new methods to evaluate the population impact of new TB vaccines, screening, and preventive interventions”, Professor MacPherson says.  

The researchers will focus their study on three countries - Malawi, South Africa, Zambia - that are priority sites for future TB vaccine roll-out. The team aims to discover new epidemiological methods to measure recent population patterns of TB transmission based on blood tests of young aged children attending primary clinics in busy cities. By modelling patterns of TB infection at high spatial resolution and over time, they will investigate the potential for this new approach to give rapid, accurate insights into the effectiveness of new TB interventions – such as vaccines – against transmission.

A major public health challenge

While huge strides have been made towards its elimination, TB remains a major public health challenge across the world, but some regions such as Africa are disproportionately affected,

Our project study has the potential to reshape how we understand and track TB transmission and evaluate interventions against it. The tools and methods we develop could provide a generalisable global framework to help us reach the finish line of ending TB. We are excited about the south-to-south knowledge transfer and capacity development that will emanate from the project”, says Dr Kwame Shanaube, from ZAMBART, Zambia.

Dr Lele Rangaka, from the Institute for Global Health, University College London, and University of Cape Town, underlines the opportunity for training and developing the next cohort of leaders in TB research, while dr James Chirombo, from the Malawi-Liverpool-Wellcome Programme, sees

an excellent opportunity towards ending TB transmission in a setting with rapid population growth and urbanisation that has led to informal overcrowded settlements. Coupled with a high HIV burden, these conditions continue to provide an enabling environment for continued transmission. This project will allow us to find hidden hotspots cost effectively for better control of TB infections”.

The prestigious Wellcome Discovery Award scheme provides funding for internationally leading researchers and teams from any discipline who want to pursue bold and creative research ideas to deliver significant shifts in understanding that could improve human life, health and wellbeing.

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