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

ACCELERATE 1

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.

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.

The Global Fund

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.

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.

CUT TB

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.

OPT4TPT

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

DRTB-HDT

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

TB Think Tank

The TB Think Tank (TB TT) was established in 2014 at the 4th South African TB Conference in an effort to strengthen the government’s programmatic TB response. TB TT is a national network of TB experts who advise the National Department of Health on evidence-based TB prevention and control policy and programmes, chaired by the Chief Director of the NDoH’s TB Cluster.

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IMPAACT4TB

IMPAACT4TB (Increasing Market and Public health outcomes through scaling up Affordable Access models of short Course preventive therapy for TB) Prioritises short-course TB preventive therapy (TPT) for people living with HIV and children under five, and subsequently all those in close contact with TB patients in 12 highburden countries - who represent 50 percent of the global TB burden. It is led by Aurum in Mozambique, South Africa, and Ghana.

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HETU -1 -TB Resistance in HIV negative population

The overarching aim of the project was to: identify miners that are TB uninfected despite being highly exposed to TB; compare epidemiological factors of TB uninfected and infected miners; and collect specimens from TB uninfected and infected miners to determine gene expression and immunological profiles associated with being TB uninfected in future analyses.

South Africa

Prof Steve Self

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

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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