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Tuberculosis

Tackling TB with Science, Strategy, and Scale

At The Aurum Institute, we are a globally recognised leader in tuberculosis (TB) innovation—shaping policy, improving care, and advancing scientific discovery to end TB for good. With operations spanning over 20 high-burden countries, our TB programme combines cutting-edge research, evidence-based implementation, and community-driven solutions.

Our Impact at a Glance

  • 2 million+ individuals screened for TB through more than 10 projects
  • 210,000 new TB cases identified and treated
  • 13.2 million patient courses of 3HP procured across 104 countries
  • 140 countries now have access to 3HP through the Aurum-led IMPAACT4TB consortium 
  • 635,000 people living with HIV and TB contacts reached with preventive care

Programmatic Leadership & Innovation

Aurum's TB portfolio bridges discovery and delivery. From clinical trials and operational research to health systems strengthening, we address TB across the care cascade:

Preventive Therapy & Market Access:

  • Leading IMPAACT4TB, a global initiative to scale short-course TB prevention (3HP)
  • Driving OPT4TPT to improve uptake and delivery of TB preventive treatment in Africa

Treatment Innovation & Clinical Trials:

  • Coordinating panTB-HM, a Phase 2c trial for a universal 4-month regimen against both drug-sensitive and drug-resistant TB
  • Co-leading DRTB-HDT, exploring host-directed therapies for rifampicin-resistant TB

Community-Based Models & Policy Influence:

  • Pioneering CUT-TB to redefine contact tracing models 
  • Supporting South Africa’s Global Fund TB Programme in high-burden districts
  • Advising national strategies through the TB Think Tank, a policy forum chaired by the National Department of Health

Integrated Response & Collaboration:

  • Leading ACCELERATE 1 alongside mothers2mothers to fast-track prevention, early detection, and care 
  • Generating evidence through multi-country collaborations in Mozambique, Tanzania, Lesotho, Ghana, Ethiopia, and beyond
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The Aurum Institute, in collaboration with community partner mothers2mothers, will assist South Africa in accelerating efforts to end TB by prioritising prevention, early detection, appropriate treatment, and retention in care.
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Aurum also leads global research trials such as the WHIP3TB trial - a randomized trial evaluating the use of the 3HP regimen for PLHIV given annually - which is funded by the Challenge TB mechanism.
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The Global Fund programme, implemented by The Aurum Institute as a Sub-Recipient (SR) of the Global TB Grant (April 2022–March 2025), targets South Africa’s high TB burden. It focuses on 12 districts that account for over 50% of the nation's missing TB cases.

 
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Aurum co-leads and is the African coordinating partner for the TB-Sequel project, a pan-African project to understand the clinical, microbiologic, and host immune factors affecting or predicting the long-term sequelae and socio-economic impact of pulmonary tuberculosis and treatment outcome, taking place in Tanzania, The Gambia, Mozambique and South Africa.
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CUT-TB (Community and Universal Testing for TB among contacts) is a 4-year EDCTP funded cluster-randomised pragmatic that is being conduct in South Africa, Tanzania and Lesotho. The study  aims to measure effectiveness of universal testing compared to standard TB screening for detection of TB among household and community contacts.
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The Opt4TPT (Optimising the delivery cascade for tuberculosis preventive treatment among people living with HIV) study is a three-year programmatic assessment of TPT delivery across three countries, namely Ethiopia, South Africa and Zimbabwe, to generate critical knowledge to improve TPT uptake, implementation and outcomes
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DRTB-HDT The EU-funded DRTB-HDT (Stratified Host-Directed Therapy for Drug Resistant Tuberculosis) project will determine if two adjunctive host-directed therapies can prevent the poor outcomes of treatment in cases of RIF-R TB. Patients with RIF-R TB and other risk factors for poor outcome will participate in a randomised, controlled, three-armed multicentre trial.

Research Studies

Read the latest studies on TB
  • Methodological approach: A longitudinal (prospective cohort) study was conducted at South African gold mines to identify miners who have been working in the mines for at least 15 years but have no evidence of TB infection and are HIV negative. Miners were screened for eligibility and chest radiographs were reviewed to exclude current or prior TB. Quantiferon test (QFT) and tuberculin skin test were done to exclude latent TB infection and HIV test was offered. We enrolled HIV-negative miners and collected blood for QFT, plasma, peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) processing, whole blood assay and Paxgene tubes for transcriptomics. The plasma, PBMCs and Paxgene blood tubes were collected and analyzed to identify gene profiles and immune responses associated with TB protection. Miners who were QFT negative and those who were infected with latent TB (QFT and TST positive) at enrolment were followed up 12 months post enrolment and all enrolment procedures were repeated. Embedded within the longitudinal study was a case control study to identify gene expression and immunological profiles associated with being TB-uninfected using the stored blood specimens.

    Key Findings: Still analysing and completing lab tests

    Outputs/Outcomes: This work offers innovative approaches to understanding the mechanisms that underlie resistance and susceptibility to Mtb infection in HIV uninfected individuals which may point to novel approaches to TB vaccine and therapeutic strategies that incorporate host-directed therapies (HDT) to subvert immune evasion by Mtb.

    Related resources: N/A

    Timeline: 2014 – 2018
    Research Partners: London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, The Aurum Institute , University of Washington
    Locations: Gold mines, Orkney, North West

Latest Highlights

Read the latest news about our impact on TB
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