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TDR (the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases) and WHO’s Global Tuberculosis Programme announce the availability of an operational research package to evaluate the performance, feasibility, acceptability and impact of treatment decision algorithms for pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) in children.
WHO made an interim conditional recommendation on the use of integrated treatment decision algorithms (TDAs) to aid in TB treatment decision-making in children in the 2022 WHO consolidated guidelines on the management of TB in children and adolescents. These algorithms are designed to help clinicians to make a decision to start TB treatment in a child, based on microbiological, clinical and radiological evidence. Two evidence-informed TDAs are included in the accompanying operational handbook on the management of TB in children and adolescents.
Following a call for expressions of interest on the generation of data to externally validate treatment decision algorithms for TB in children, a workshop was conducted in September 2022 with interested research groups, country programmes and technical partners to discuss research methods. Subsequently, a protocol for this research has been developed with input from the workshop participants and other interested experts. This protocol, called TDA4Child TB – TB Treatment Decision Algorithms for Children (TDA4Child) aims to facilitate the conduct of operational research to externally validate two TDAs for pulmonary TB in children, and to generate data that are harmonized across different implementation settings using a standardized methodology.
TDA4Child includes a master protocol, data collection tools and key study procedures that investigators can use and adapt to their context. The generic protocol is currently available in English, and will soon also be available in French. An electronic database will soon be available in French and English.
Evidence from this research can play a key role in informing programmatic implementation at the country level, and also provide important data to the global TB community to strengthen the evidence base and inform guidance on the management of TB in children and adolescents.
The link to the research package, including the master protocol, paper based data collection tools and key study procedures is available here: https://tdr.who.int/activities/TDA4Child-initiative.
