Tackling unmet needs for tuberculosis care: tools for an imperfect world

Although there are highly sensitive diagnostic tests available for tuberculosis (TB), these tests are more suitable for well-resourced settings with a low incidence of TB. Where high TB incidence collides with inadequately resourced health care services or limited access to health care, these tests have severe limitations, which account for at least part of the missing millions who have undiagnosed, untreated and unreported TB disease. Similarly, although effective antibiotic treatment exists, the treatment courses are lengthy, have marked side-effects, and are prone to fuel the development of drug resistance. Our research group employs complimentary clinical, imaging and laboratory approaches to develop new tools that can accelerate and refine diagnostic approaches and that will help to evaluate new treatment strategies more efficiently. Together, our research programs aim to lead to new tools that can function at appropriate levels of health care to contribute to a more comprehensive strategy against TB.