KEMRI/CDC Joins Consortium to Carry out TB Trials

The KEMRI/CDC Tuberculosis (TB) Branch in Kisumu was recently selected to join the CDC’s Division of TB Trials Consortium (TBTC). The mission of TBTC is to conduct programmatically relevant clinical laboratory and epidemiological research concerning the diagnosis, clinical management and prevention of tuberculosis infection and disease.

TB remains one of the most devastating infectious diseases in the world. It predominantly affects young adults in their most productive years of life and has substantial impact on economic development.  Nyanza province contributes 20% of the country’s TB burden.

A major obstacle to the control of TB is poor adherence to long and complicated treatment regimens. Incomplete TB treatment can lead to serious consequences such as increased morbidity and mortality, prolonged infectiousness and transmission in the community, and the development of drug resistance.

As a result of joining the TBTC, KEMRI/CDC has been chosen to carry out a TB drug trial beginning 2011. This is because current effective treatment regiments used against TB requires treatment for a minimum of 6months, a duration that is challenging for patients and tuberculosis control programs. Non-adherence with the relatively lengthy course of treatment remains a major problem.

Despite the fact that it is a preventable and curable disease, TB continues to cause significant illness and deaths worldwide, and rates of multi-drug resistant (MDR) TB cases are on the rise. To address this, directly observed therapy (DOT) has been promulgated as a standard of care worldwide. However, the administrative burden of providing DOT for all patients is considerable. Thus, new drugs that would permit significant shortening of treatment are urgently needed, as are drugs that could enable effective treatment being given at widely-spaced intervals of one week or more.

New tuberculosis drugs are needed to shorten and/or simplify treatment of drug susceptible tuberculosis and improve the treatment of patient with multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR TB). A new tuberculosis drug will also provide effective therapy for patients intolerant to the current first-line drugs and provide for short, effective treatment of patients with latent tuberculosis infection.

TB clinic at the New Nyanza Provincial General Hospital is currently being prepared for the upcoming drug trial.