01 — The project
Making childhood TB visible.
ACT4KIDS-TB is a four-year research project funded by Global Health EDCTP3. It develops and tests three complementary tools to diagnose tuberculosis in young children: a blood test, computer-aided reading of chest X-rays and a clinical decision app.
Overview
Three linked innovations, tested together.
Diagnosing TB in young children is notoriously difficult: they rarely produce enough sputum for standard testing, and existing confirmatory microbiological tests have poor sensitivity in this age group. ACT4KIDS-TB tackles this gap through three linked innovations, developed and tested together in children with presumptive TB in Benin and South Africa.
Starts
1 August 2026
Ends
31 July 2030
Project coordinator
Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp
Scientific coordinator
Desmond Tutu TB Centre (Stellenbosch University)
Grant agreement
101248873
Source: CORDIS, project 101248873.
Why it matters
Children are still the gap in tuberculosis care.
1.25M
children develop tuberculosis every year (estimated).
>50%
of them are never diagnosed or reported.
96%
of the children who die of TB were never treated.
Objectives
What the project sets out to do.
- Measure what Actiphage® adds to current confirmatory tests (culture and/or nucleic acid amplification tests) in children aged 0 to 10, including high-risk groups.
- Validate existing CAD software for children, using chest X-rays from more than 200 children in Benin and South Africa.
- Develop the CDM-app and compare it with the WHO Treatment Decision Algorithms, combining symptoms, X-ray, Actiphage® and standard microbiological test results.
- Assess cost-effectiveness, acceptability and feasibility for caregivers, children and health care workers.
- Train health care workers at national, regional and international level, and strengthen research capacity through doctoral training.
Sources: project description by ITM; CORDIS, project 101248873.
Methodology
From the clinic to tools others can adopt.
1
Clinical trial
Children aged 0–10 with presumptive TB in Benin and South Africa, including those under 2, with severe acute malnutrition, extrapulmonary TB or HIV.
2
X-ray validation
A paediatric chest X-ray repository to test CAD against clinical, microbiological and radiological reference standards.
3
Decision app
Compared with the WHO Treatment Decision Algorithms, it brings Actiphage® and CAD results into one recommendation.
4
Implementation research
Cost-effectiveness, acceptability and feasibility, to prepare scale-up in health systems.
Timeline
Four years, August 2026 to July 2030.
Year 1
Aug 2026 – Jul 2027
Year 2
Aug 2027 – Jul 2028
Year 3
Aug 2028 – Jul 2029
Year 4
Aug 2029 – Jul 2030
Funding
Supported by Global Health EDCTP3.
The project is supported by Global Health EDCTP3 and its members under grant agreement No 101248873.
Funded by the European Union under Global Health EDCTP3. Views and opinions expressed are, however, those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of Global Health EDCTP3 nor its members. Neither of the parties can be held responsible for them.
€2.06M
EU contribution, out of a total project budget of €2.48M.
Source: CORDIS, project 101248873 (total €2,478,225.75; EU contribution €2,059,163.75).