Closing – TB GAPs – for people living with HIV: TB Guidance for Adaptable Patient-Centered Service
In September 2020, the Global TB Program was awarded a 5 million US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) grant. This five-year project will focus on finding and preventing TB in children and youth while simultaneously determining the most cost-effective prevention strategy and promoting best practices to sustain the impact of our work. Led by Dr. Anna Mandalakas, TB GAPS is being implemented through September 2026 in five high TB, high HIV burden sub-Saharan African CDC priority countries – Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Tanzania and Uganda – and aims to generate evidence to inform interventions targeting weaknesses within the TB and TB/HIV cascades of care.
Project Aims
- Find: Assess the performance of novel TB screening 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 strategy.
- Prevent: Compare the proportion of PLHIV who initiate and complete TPT with 3HP or 6H 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: Support dissemination 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 the TB GAPS Newsletter for regular updates and content on how to access promotional information, webinars via our TB Global Health ECHOHub, and in-country TB guidelines.