Suubi Trust
Suubi Trust a UK registered charity, 1119874, working with International Medical Foundation in Uganda.

Home About
 Giving
 Hope Ward
 Lira Clinic Cancer Care
 Blog


TB Lab at IHK

Suubi Trust is helping to develop a new TB Lab at International Hospital Kampala.

The technique we’re using, called MODS (Microscopic Observation Drug Susceptibility), allows us to offer a low cost and reliable test for TB for the first time in Africa.

The ambition of the International MODS Network is to make this tool a routine component of TB management in low resource settings. In practice this means we will diagnose and treat people with TB much more quickly. We can also identify those with drug resistant TB before we start treatment.




Grania, a VSO, is leading our work at the TB Lab; click here to read a recent update on progress at the TB Lab and about our recent funding of £46,000 from Target TB.

TB

TB kills one person every 20 seconds, even though it is preventable and curable.

Though many people consider TB a disease of the past, 1.6 million people died from TB and there were 8.8 million new TB cases in 2005. There are likely to be more than 2 million TB related deaths this year.

TB causes a huge toll in the HIV positive population. Half of HIV positive patients who die are dying from TB and 20% of HIV patients have TB at any time.

Fighting AIDS in Africa means fighting TB.

TB management is difficult - we are still reliant on a microscopic test for diagnosis that was invented in 1882 and drugs for its treatment that don’t work well and haven’t been improved since the 1950s. In this regard TB is a classic disease of poverty, affecting mainly the poor and ignored by the rich.

In the last 5 years a small group of people has been working to redress this situation. A modern and relatively cheap test for TB, MODS, has been invented in Peru and we are hoping to introduce this to East Africa by making it the central provision of a new TB diagnostic service run at IHK.

You can learn more about this initiative and TB in Africa by downloading the Project Summary or reading other TB related postings.

or click on the image below to read more about WHO’s Stop TB Strategy:



...back to top
Funding the TB Lab

Suubi Trust has already provided funds to help build and equip the level 2 bio-containment facility at International Hospital Kampala.

Further funding is required over the next few months to enable staff training and completion of the necessary validation phase, which will ensure that the new methodology is being used correctly.

This facility will be used to:
  • Provide TB culture and sensitivity testing at cost price - currently estimated at £2.50 per test
  • Train Ugandan technical staff to work in, manage and set up TB diagnostic centres
  • Establish a consultancy program to promote best practice in TB diagnostic services at District level throughout East Africa. 
You can learn more about this initiative and TB in Africa by downloading the Project Summary or reading other TB related postings.

If you would like to help support this work then please click here to read how you can give to Suubi Trust.
 

...back to top
TB Anywhere is TB Everywhere

The 6 components of the Stop TB Strategy:

  1. Pursue high-quality DOTS expansion and enhancement.
  2. Address TB/HIV, MDR-TB and other challenges.
  3. Contribute to health system strengthening.
  4. Engage all care providers.
  5. Empower people with TB and communities.
  6. Enable and promote research.

Tuberculosis: the facts

  • TB is contagious and spreads through the air; if not treated, each person with active TB infects on average 10 to 15 people every year.
  • 2 billion people, equal to one third of the world’s total population, are infected with TB bacilli, the microbes that cause TB.
  • 1 in 10 people infected with TB bacilli will become sick with active TB in their lifetime; people with HIV are at a much greater risk.
  • TB is a disease of poverty; affecting mostly young adults in their most productive years; the vast majority of TB deaths are in the developing world.
  • 1.6 million people died from TB in 2005, equal to an estimated 4400 deaths a day.
  • TB is a leading killer among HIV-infected people with weakened immune systems; about 200 000 people with HIV die from TB every year, most of them being in Africa.
  • There were 8.8 million new TB cases in 2005 and 80% of them were in 22 countries.
  • TB is a worldwide pandemic; though the highest rates per capita are in Africa (28% of all TB cases).
  • Multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) is a form of TB that does not respond to the standard treatments using first line drugs; MDR-TB is present in virtually all countries recently surveyed by WHO and partners.
  • 450 000 new MDR-TB cases are estimated to occur every year.
  • Extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB) occurs when resistance to second-line drugs develops; it is extremely difficult to treat, and cases have been confirmed worldwide.
Follow this link to read more about WHO’s Stop TB Strategy: WHO TB Factsheet


The new TB Lab at IHK will be the first in Africa to use MODS a new test for multi-drug resistant TB which could save thousands of lives each year. Wellcome Trust supported the initial research and testing of MODS in Peru and the World Bank is now funding implementation in Lima and Chennai, India.

It is thought that over two million people die each year from TB, but whilst the common strain is almost 100 percent treatable, medical experts across the globe are seeing an increasing number of cases of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis. MDRTB is defined as being resistant to at least rifampicin and isoniazid, the two most potent first-line TB drugs in use.

At the moment the best commonly available culture technique takes 21-42 days to give a result, not much good when you're confronted with a very sick patient. MODS takes just 7-10 days and also indicates which drugs to use.


1 in 8 patients have MDRTB and at the moment there is no way of identifying those people, so they are just given the usual treatment and unfortunately they continue to deteriorate. In HIV patients we don't know whether they're getting worse because they have resistant TB or because they've got another illness altogether.

You can read more detailed information about MODS and associated research at the following links:

Physorg.com

MODS Group of Peru

Rapid Detection of Tuberculosis and Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis
published in The new England Journal of Medicine

Indian Journal of Medical Microbiology

...back to top
Contact us...


You can get in touch by email - Contact@SuubiTrust.org.uk

by phone - +44 7733 318280

or by mail to:

Suubi Trust
15 Todd Close
Holmer Green
Bucks
HP15 6UX.

Or use this form to send your message now...

Our Contact Details...



Target TB has recently granted £46,000 to help support this initiative and in particular to meet the cost of the ongoing clinical trials.



Brin Berriman, priest in charge of the three Lands End parishes of St Buryan, St Levan and St Sennen rasied more than £1,350 for the work at the TB Lab whilst on holiday cycling from John O’Groats to Lands End.

Brin and his wife Cheryl completed this 1,137 mile trip on Thursday 27th September. See the photos here...

















































Suubi Trust is a UK Registered Charity No: 1119874
080712