ACT4KIDS-TB — Closing the diagnostic gap for children with tuberculosis

Every year, an estimated 1.25 million children develop tuberculosis (TB) — yet more than half are never diagnosed or reported. Among children who die of TB, 96% never received treatment, most of them under five years old. Diagnosing TB in young children is notoriously difficult: they cannot easily produce a sputum sample, their symptoms overlap with common childhood illnesses, and current tests perform far worse in children than in adults.

to Project

ACT4KIDS-TB (Actiphage®-supported Clinical Tools for Knowledge-driven Innovations in Diagnostic Solutions for TB in young children) is a four-year research project that brings together three innovations in a single, bedside solution:

A Clinical Decision-Making app (CDM-app) that guides health care workers — from community nurses to specialists — through an evidence-based, visual assessment of a child’s TB risk, including nutrition and contact-tracing advice.
Actiphage®, a novel blood-based test that detects viable TB bacteria within hours, instead of the four to six weeks culture requires today.
Computer-aided detection (CAD) for chest X-rays, brought to the point of care so that even clinics without radiology expertise can access a reliable reading.

Funded by the EDCTP3 Global Health Programme and coordinated by the Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM) in Antwerp, ACT4KIDS-TB is implemented with partners in South Africa, Benin and Kenya over 48 months. Over 200 children with presumptive TB will take part in the study in Cotonou (Benin) and Cape Town (South Africa), and more than 300 health care workers across sub-Saharan Africa will be trained.

Explore the project in more detail, meet the consortium behind it, or see how the five work packages fit together.