In September 2020, Baylor College of Medicine’s Global Tuberculosis (TB) Program and Baylor College of Medicine Children's Foundation partners were notified as the recipients of a five year Centers for Disease Control and Prevention TB project – TB GAPS – with aims to find and prevent TB in children and adolescents, while simultaneously determining the most cost-effective prevention strategy and promoting best practices to sustain impact.
TB GAPS will run from September 2020 through September 2025 collaborating with partners in five sub-Saharan African countries including Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Tanzania and Uganda.
Project Aims
- Find: Assess the performance of novel TB screening and diagnostic algorithms among children, adolescents, and adults living with HIV and presenting for routine care across a network of family centered HIV clinics in five sub-Saharan African countries as compared to the current WHO recommended symptom based screening and diagnostic strategy.
- Prevent: Compare the proportion of PLHIV who initiate and complete TB preventive therapy (TPT) with 1HP (daily rifapentine + INH for four weeks), 3HP (once-weekly isoniazid-rifapentine for 12 weeks), or 6H (six months of isoniazid) within the context of a patient centered differentiated service delivery model allowing selection of TPT regimen and randomly providing enhanced adherence support versus the standard of care for TPT and adherence support.
- Costing: Evaluate the cost-effectiveness of comparative TPT regimens for the prevention of TB disease among children, adolescents and adults living with HIV.
- Sustain: Disseminate and promote uptake of evidence based best practices targeting CDC priority countries.
Capitalizing on the Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital Global Health Network, TB GAPS provides a unique opportunity to examine these critically important questions in children and adolescents living with HIV in TB high burden countries.
View our TB GAPS Informational Flyer. In addition, check back here for regular updates and content on how to access promotional information, webinars via our TB Global Health ECHOHub, and in country TB guidelines.
