TREATS

Tuberculosis Reduction through Expanded Anti-Retroviral Treatment and Screening (TREATS) Project

THE TREATS project (Tuberculosis Reduction through Expanded Anti-retroviral Treatment and Screening) aims to measure the impact of a household-level combined HIV and TB prevention intervention on the burden of TB at population level in 14 urban, high-prevalence communities in South Africa and Zambia.

TB and HIV are the leading infectious causes of death worldwide – in 2016 1.7 million people died of TB. For people living with HIV, TB is the most significant co-infection, 40 percent of HIV deaths in 2016 were due to TB. The TREATS project [Tuberculosis Reduction through Expanded Anti-retroviral Treatment and Screening] was developed in response to this.

Launched in 2018, TREATS aims to inform new policies and approaches for tackling the TB / HIV epidemic. As the global health community works towards ambitious new goals to end TB, TREATS will provide invaluable new information for accelerating effective interventions.

TREATS is being conducted by a consortium of organisations that is already running the largest ever trial of a combination HIV prevention strategy, known as HPTN 071 (PopART). This trial was conducted across 12 communities in Zambia and 9 in South Africa, covering around one million people in total. PopART involved universal testing and treatment for HIV through house-to-house visits by Community HIV (CHiPs) on an annual basis over four years – from 2014 – 2018. As part of PopART, all community members are also screened for TB.

Building on PopART, TREATS will measure the impact of this combined TB / HIV intervention on tuberculosis – measuring prevalence of disease as well as incidence of infection. The project runs until 2021 and includes: a social science component to better understand stigma related to TB; mathematical and economic modelling to provide answers for how future large-scale interventions can be undertaken effectively; use of the newest tools available for diagnosing TB infection and operating effectively on a large scale.

TREATS consortium members include: London School of Hygiene &Tropical Medicine, Imperial College London, Zambart, KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation, Sheffield University, the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union), Health Systems Trust, Delft Imaging Systems and QIAGEN.

The EUR 12.9 million project is part of the European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership, (EDCTP2 programme) supported by the European Union under Horizon 2020 – its Framework Programme for Research and Innovation

Here is  Video on The Treats study. Click Here