SU signs grant agreement to combat children’s TB

Stellenbosch University

Stellenbosch University

Published Oct 27, 2019

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Cape Town - Stellenbosch University (SU) has signed a new grant agreement with Unitaid - an international organisation that invests in innovations to prevent, diagnose and treat HIV/Aids, tuberculosis and malaria more quickly, affordably and effectively, to bring children’s needs to the forefront of the global TB response.

Project leader at the Desmond Tutu TB Centre Anthony Garcia-Prats said children had been largely neglected to date in the global response to

multidrug-resistant (MDR) TB, and they deserved better.

“We’re excited that through

Unitaid’s investment in this innovative project, SU and its partners can contribute to addressing this inequity by improving access for children to better, more child-friendly MDR-TB treatment and prevention,” Garcia-Prats said.

The grant, valued at over

R280million, would be used to develop and evaluate child-friendly treatments for MDR-TB and assess regimens to prevent the onset of the disease. The agreement was signed earlier in October and will run through to 2022.

Centre director Anneke Hesseling said 95% of children with MDR-TB in the world did not currently receive treatment.

“Among those who do, most are treated with drug regimens that are long, bad-tasting and toxic, often causing severe side-effects such as irreversible hearing loss, and composed mostly of adult tablets that must be crushed.”

She said as many as 2million children were infected with drug-resistant strains of TB bacteria but had not yet progressed to active disease.

“A lack of high-quality evidence limits access to treatments that could prevent TB disease from developing in most of these children,” Hesseling said.

@SISONKE_MD

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Cape Argus

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