TB-MBLA TRAINING

Principal Research Fellow Dr Wilber Sabiiti spent much of March and April this year on the road, educating fellow researchers about a novel tuberculosis (TB) test developed by the School’s Infection and Global Health Research Division in 2018. The TB-MBLA measures the number of TB bacteria in a patient sample in a matter of hours and monitors the effectiveness of medicine in killing the bacteria as treatment progresses. Dr Sabiiti visited Gabon, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda, the UK, and the Netherlands to train researchers, visit with potential collaborators, and serve as a conference speaker.

Fig.1 TB-MBLA implementation training takes place in Mozambique.

Working with Dr Bariki Mtafya of NIMR-Mbeya Medical Research Centre, Dr Sabiiti first completed TB-MBLA implementation training at three research sites in Gabon, Mozambique and Tanzania. Alongside Malawi, these three countries are part of the OptiRiMoxTB clinical trial, which aims to shorten the course of TB treatment from six to four months using easily accessible existing medicines. The trial is also building the clinical-trial capacity of young research institutions in participating countries.