The COVID-19 pandemic threatens to reverse recent progress in reducing the global burden of tuberculosis. The global number of deaths for tuberculosis could increase by around 200.000–400.000 in 2020 alone, as result of essential tuberculosis services disruptions due to the reallocation of human, financial and other resources from tuberculosis to the COVID-19 response, as reported by WHO: https://bit.ly/35KyzD
ImproViTB
With 1 million new cases and 200,000 children dead each year, Tuberculosis (TB) is now the leading cause of death from infectious diseases for children of all ages globally (UNICEF). ImproViTB is among the first pediatric clinical studies in the Central African region aimed at improving the clinical outcome and quality of life of children with pulmonary tuberculosis through a standard antituberculosis treatment supplemented with vitamin D.
This project is lead by a consortium of research institutions and universities from 4 Central African countries (Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon and Gabon) and 3 European countries, coordinated by CANTAM (Prof. Francine Ntoumi), the Network of Excellence in clinical research for Central African region.