Novel techniques for the detection of Pediatric TB in Ethiopia
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia - Start Date: - End Date: Diagnosis of
pediatric tuberculosis (TB) in resource-limited settings with
high rates of HIV and TB is severely limited by methods that are
slow, inefficient, and costly, which leads to increased
morbidity and mortality. Our research team has made significant
progress in the development of new TB diagnostic tools that
demonstrate significant advantages over the gold standard
diagnostics in adults. We propose to evaluate the potential of
these new tools as well as others for the detection and direct
susceptibility testing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) in
children from 0-5 years of age. This project will be set in
Ethiopia, where pediatric TB and HIV co- infection are major
problems. We hypothesize that, compared to current standard
techniques, the diagnosis of active TB in children and the
recovery of Mtb isolates from these children can be done more
quickly, efficiently, and cost-effectively us