Prevention of Transmission

Ending tuberculosis epidemics will require interrupting ongoing TB transmission. TB screening outside of health facilities (including contact tracing and active TB case finding), preventive therapy, and airborne infection prevention are valuable tools for stopping this global health threat. Evidence-based, scalable strategies are needed for targeting high-risk settings and populations and implementing effective transmission-reducing interventions.  

Carrie Tudor
Johns Hopkins University

David Dowdy
Johns Hopkins University

Emily Kendall
Johns Hopkins University

Gabriel Chamie
University of California, San Francisco

Carina Marquez
University of California, San Francisco

Activities

To address these gaps and interrupt ongoing transmission of TB in healthcare and community congregate settings, SMART4TB will use novel research approaches to address the following key questions:

  • Can real-time geotargeting approaches improve active TB case finding and linkage to treatment for people with TB and TB preventive therapy for high-risk contacts;

  • Can real-time social network analysis be incorporated into contact tracing to improve the yield of TB case finding and TB preventive therapy for high-risk contacts; and

  • Can health facilities and high-risk community congregate settings implement a core package of tailored airborne infection prevention and control measures to interrupt TB transmission?

Partners & Collaborations

SMART4TB is studying TB transmission in a rural parish in Uganda with a high burden of TB. In conjunction with an ongoing NIH-funded study and a collaboration with UCSF, Walimu, and the Ugandan National TB and Leprosy Program, this research will evaluate the extent to which TB is spreading from within-community transmission, identifying networks and places that are epidemiologically or genomically associated with transmission; estimate the role of a high risk job within the community (miners) in contributing to transmission; and understanding the pathways of potential transmission between the community and the larger region in Uganda. The results of this research will help shape how to effectively intervene in transmission.