Un programme financé par Unitaid va permettre un diagnostic avancé de la tuberculose chez les enfants défavorisés
Geneva – Unitaid and the University of Bordeaux today launched a four-year research project to cut TB deaths among children by widening availability of fast tests that can be used even in remote, rural settings.
The TB-Speed project will be implemented in Cambodia, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Uganda and Zambia by a consortium of eight organizations led by the University of Bordeaux and supported by a US$ 14.6 million Unitaid grant. The French government is contributing US$ 1.6 million to facilitate implementation of the grant through a technical support fund known as the 5% Initiative.
The project will test innovative methods of diagnosis in five individual research studies, including clinical trials. The latest generation of portable, battery-operated diagnostic machines, including GeneXpert and Omni, will be deployed in the project, bringing sensitive TB testing to places without good access to clinics or hospitals.
Data produced by TB-Speed is expected to influence practices in other high-TB burden countries in the years immediately following the project, bringing diagnosis to more than 237,000 children, and saving almost 60,000 lives.
“Diagnosing TB in children is more difficult than in adults,” said Lelio Marmora, Executive Director of Unitaid. “With this innovative technology we can close that gap and move toward saving the lives of the 250,000 children who die needlessly every year of this curable disease.”
“Nearly all children who die from TB do not receive treatment for the simple reason that they are not diagnosed with the disease in the first place,” said Dr Olivier Marcy, TB-Speed Project Director at the University of Bordeaux. “In TB-Speed, we will address two key issues: the lack of capacity at the decentralized level for sample collection and molecular testing, and the lack of systematic detection of TB in highly vulnerable children, such as those with severe pneumonia, HIV-infection, or severe acute malnutrition.”
TB is a bacterial infection spread through tiny droplets in the air. When infected people cough, sneeze, spit, or even just speak, they can propel TB bacteria into the air and infect bystanders. Without treatment, 45 percent of people with TB will die, as well as nearly all HIV-positive people with TB. In 2016, 1.7 million people died of TB.
Unitaid’s grant was announced Wednesday in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, at the 19th International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa. TB-Speed is one of four new Unitaid grant projects for TB approved in late 2017. The four grants, totaling US$ 117 million, are designed to prevent, diagnose and treat latent, drug-resistant and paediatric TB in countries most affected by the disease.
Read more:
Strengthening paediatric TB services for enhanced early detection (TB-Speed)
MEDIA CONTACTS:
Unitaid: Andrew Hurst, hursta@unitaid.who.int
Université de Bordeaux: Emmanuelle Baillet, emmanuelle.baillet@u-bordeaux.fr
Unitaid cherche des informations sur les produits de santé pour lutter contre les infections opportunistes chez les personnes séropositives
Unitaid today issued a call to manufacturers and suppliers worldwide to provide information on health products to tackle opportunistic infections in people living with HIV.
The announcement follows the decision by Unitaid’s Executive Board this past June to support improved access to health products for people with advanced HIV disease, those co-infected with HIV and hepatitis, as well as people co-infected with HIV and the human papillomavirus (HPV), the most common sexually transmitted infection and cause of cervical cancer in women.
Opportunistic infections are infections that occur more frequently and are more severe in individuals with weakened immune systems, including people living with HIV. The most frequent ones are tuberculosis, pneumonia, severe bacterial infection, toxoplasmosis, and cryptococcal meningitis.
Unitaid is considering investing in ways to overcome market barriers that limit access to the best tools for effectively managing opportunistic infections among people with advanced HIV disease.
“Unitaid is essentially exploring ways to unlock access to important health products in low- and middle-income countries to protect people living with HIV from opportunistic infections,” said Dr Philippe Duneton, Unitaid Deputy Executive Director, speaking on the opening day of the 19th International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa (ICASA) in Abidjan.
Unitaid has identified key priority products that require immediate market interventions. They are featured in the recently released WHO guidelines for managing advanced HIV disease.
The Request for Information (RFI) issued today calls on interested manufacturers and suppliers to submit information on their diagnosis, prevention and treatment products that are either commercially available or in the pipeline.
Download Request for Information forms: [PDF, 50 KB]
Contact
For more information on the RFI, please contact Ademola Osigbesan at Unitaid, osigbesana@unitaid.who.int
Methodology for developing strategic narratives
Prévention de la tuberculose chez les groupes à haut risque
Renforcer les services de lutte contre la tuberculose pour les enfants
Nouvelles subventions d’Unitaid dédiées aux enfants atteints de tuberculose
Geneva – Unitaid’s Executive Board has approved two new grants worth a combined US$ 43.7 million to prevent tuberculosis in vulnerable populations, with an emphasis on curbing the devastating effects of TB on children.
The grants join two others approved in September to fund a US$ 117 million slate of new projects aimed at fighting the world’s leading infectious killer. The announcement coincides with a Unitaid event being held at the 48th Union World Conference on Lung Health in Guadalajara, Mexico.
“Every day, more than 200 children under the age of 15 die needlessly from TB, which is 200 deaths too many,” said Lelio Marmora, Unitaid Executive Director. “Integrating TB treatment into existing HIV and maternal and child health services will reach more children with life-saving treatment sooner.”
One of the two newly approved grants will provide US$ 36.3 million to improve treatment services, and the market, for child-friendly TB medicines, in India and nine African countries. Project leader Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF) will work to reach undiagnosed children by incorporating TB screening into services for HIV, nutrition, and maternal and child health. If the project is eventually scaled up globally, EGPAF estimates that over 500,000 lives could be saved over the five years following the project.
“Children with TB represent one of the most neglected and vulnerable populations in the world,” said Chip Lyons, EGPAF President and CEO. “EGPAF is proud to partner with Unitaid on this project that will expand our existing HIV prevention and treatment services to implement more effective diagnosis, treatment and care for children with active and latent TB.”
The second of the newly approved grants provides US$ 7.4 million to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Global TB Programme as it works to improve the diagnosis and treatment of paediatric, latent and multidrug-resistant TB in high-burden countries. WHO will ensure that evidence generated from Unitaid investments is quickly put into global practice.
“The WHO Global TB Programme applauds Unitaid for this unprecedented move to enhance collaboration with WHO to combat TB,” said Dr Mario Raviglione, Director of WHO’s Global TB Programme. “Through this grant we will ensure that all TB-funded projects are structured and monitored in a way that outcomes are rapidly translated into innovative policies. I am particularly pleased with the decision to support work on latent TB infection, an orphan area which urgently requires generating stronger evidence for wider implementation.”
In 2015, 1.8 million people died of TB, about one person every 18 seconds. Without treatment, 45 percent of people with TB will die, as well as nearly all HIV-positive people with TB. WHO estimates that one million children developed TB in 2015, but more than half did not receive the diagnosis and treatment they needed, mostly those living in the poorest and most vulnerable households.
The pair of TB grants approved in September went to the Aurum Institute in South Africa (US$ 58.8 million) and the University of Bordeaux (US$ 14.6 million). The Aurum Institute will work with partners in a dozen countries in Africa, Asia and South America to expand short-course preventive therapy for two groups at especially high risk for TB: people living with HIV and children under five years old. The University of Bordeaux will concentrate on widening the availability of childhood TB diagnosis in six African countries and Cambodia, using fast, state-of-the-art tests that can be performed even in small local clinics.
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