Beyond TB: a person-centred and rights-based approach for people affected by TB and their households

Speakers: Katharina Kranzer is a Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Clinical Microbiologist, who has previously led the German National and Supranational TB Reference Laboratory. She is based in Zimbabwe. Her research focuses on TB, HIV, AMR and the overlap between communicable and non-communicable diseases. She is the PI of the ERASE-TB study, a large EDCTP funded multi-country consortium to validate novel diagnostics for earlier TB diagnostics. Claire Calderwood is a Wellcome Trust Clinical PhD fellow in Global Health Research and StR in Respiratory and General Medicine. Her PhD study ‘Imba Hutano’ (the health of the house) is embedded within ERASE-TB. Topic: TB-affected households experience syndemic vulnerability, reflecting a concentration of and interactions between multiple biomedical, psychosocial, and structural determinants of health. Traditional approaches to systematic screening  for TB of household contacts do not address pre-existing risks, such as undernutrition or other chronic conditions, or the direct and indirect effects of TB on households, such as loss of livelihood. These pre-existing risks and consequences of TB not only perpetuate the global TB epidemic but, for affected individuals and families, lead to poor health and deepen the cycle of poverty. We propose reimagining TB screening as an opportunity to deliver a contextually relevant, integrated package of services that addresses the needs of TB-affected households. Such an approach puts people and their rights at the centre of our efforts to End TB and has equity at the core.