Tuberculosis

Aurum is a scientific leader in the field of TB, with a deep understanding of the science as well as the implementation approaches that lead to success.

Aurum has produced over 500 scientific articles in the last 20 years and has research experts ranging from epidemiologists, health economists and social scientists, to clinical trial specialists.

Aurum is involved in TB vaccine, HIV vaccine, TB drug and HIV drug trials. Several of these trials, such as the TB treatment shortening trials using Remox and Rifaquin provided landmark information for the management of tuberculosis. Likewise, the work on the AERAS GSK phase 2b study has provided new hope for a tuberculosis vaccine and Aurum led the SSI H1 and
Ad35 TB vaccine trials with SSI H1 and Ad35.

We have led landmark studies in the fields of TB case finding, TB preventive therapy and TB-HIV integration. These included those evaluating TB preventive therapy (Thibela INH study), done in three large-scale mining regions, and TB diagnosis (XTEND evaluation) that have had implications for global policy and practice. Other large cluster-randomized trials have evaluated TB/HIV integration interventions such as the use of presumptive TB treatment for ART patients (TB FastTrack), use of TB/HIV integration oﬃcers in clinics (MERGE) and introduction of INH and Point of care CD4 in households for contact tracing (Inhibit TB).

WHIP3TB

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.

PHOENIX TRIAL

Aurum leads the PHOENIx trial, one of the first trials to determine if a single drug can successfully prevent MDR-TB in adults and children. This trial is taking place in 27 sites in 12 countries.

Host Directed Therapy Research

Aurum's TB host-directed therapy (TB-HDT) project is a study of drugs.

TB SEQUEL

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.

EPSHA

Through the Evidence for HIV Prevention Southern and Eastern Africa (EHPSA) fund, Aurum is leading a project which is evaluating HIV treatment in prisons in Zambia and South Africa, and also a systematic review and evaluation of M&E systems in prisons in Mozambique, Zambia, Mauritius, Tanzania and Malawi.