TB-CAPT

Visit the TB-CAPT consortium page here

What is this project?

TB-CAPT (Close the gap, increase Access, Provide adequate Therapy) will help improve tuberculosis (TB) diagnosis and management at the point of care. A series of clinical trials will generate evidence to inform diagnostic strategies for TB and TB/HIV co-infection, including drug-susceptibility testing.

 

Why are we working on it?

There is an urgent need for TB tools and diagnostic technologies that can not only detect disease but can also identify strains that are resistant to the TB medications that are available. WHO estimates that over half a million people develop TB that is resistant to common first-line drugs each year, but less than 187,000 drug-resistant TB cases were actually detected and reported in 2018. Containing the emergence of TB drug resistance is critical if we are to have a chance to beat the disease while the medicines that we have still work.

Crucially, improved diagnostics for point-of-care detection of TB and for rapid, expanded drug-susceptibility testing are needed at lower levels of the healthcare system (such as in primary care clinics) – where many patients first seek care.

 

What does it involve?

TB-CAPT includes a series of clinical trials in Tanzania, Mozambique and South Africa to evaluate the impact of diagnostic interventions on outcomes, including the effects of expanding TB testing strategies to those who are HIV positive. The trials have been designed to take into account local epidemiology, as well as existing infrastructure, and will compare new strategies with current standards of care.

 

What do we expect to achieve?

Data gathered will inform WHO policy on point-of-care testing strategies for TB in broad patient populations, and support planning for potential implementation and scale-up by participating ministries of health.

Further, TB-CAPT will build capacity for the implementation of diagnostic trials that will serve in the evaluation of future diagnostic tests.

 

What is the timescale?

TB-CAPT will run for 3.5 years, with planned completion in 2023.

 

Partners and funding

TB-CAPT is being implemented by a FIND-led consortium that also includes (in alphabetical order): African Society for Laboratory Medicine (ASLM), Ethiopia; Fundacao Manhica, Mozambique; Fundación Privada Instituto de Salud Global Barcelona, Spain; Ifakara Health Institute Trust, Tanzania; Instituto Nacional de Saúde, Mozambique; Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet Muenchen, Germany; National Institute for Medical Research – Tanzania, Tanzania; Ospedale San Raffaele, Italy; Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Switzerland; University of Cape Town, South Africa; and Wits Health Consortium, South Africa.

The TB-CAPT project is part of the EDCTP2 programme supported by the European Union.

More information

For more information please info@finddx.org.