Developing a UK-Korean partnership to inform global tuberculosis control: treatment of neglected patterns of drug resistant disease

Dates: 22 May 2017 to 21 May 2018

Principal Investigator: Dr Helen Stagg

Partner(s): Dr. Jusang Kim, The Catholic University of Korea/Incheon St. Mary's Hospital, Republic of Korea

Location(s): UK, Republic of Korea

Funding: MRC

Contact: h.stagg@ucl.ac.uk

Project Summary

Tuberculosis (TB) is a chronic infectious disease with a substantial global burden. Isoniazid and rifampicin are critical for the treatment of both TB disease and clinically latent TB infections. Resistance to these drugs, either combined (multidrug resistant TB; MDR TB) or individually (non-MDR isoniazid resistance, non-MDR rifampicin resistance), is common; ~10% of patients internationally have non-MDR isoniazid resistant TB and ~1% non-MDR rifampicin resistant TB. Treatment recommendations for these drug resistance profiles are inconsistent globally, with substantial evidence gaps. High quality observational and randomised controlled trial data are required to provide a firm evidence base for successful patient therapy.

The Republic of Korea has a high burden of TB, with an incidence rate of 80/100,000 in 2015. It is well-resourced in terms of medical infrastructure and is an excellent setting for planning such studies.

This grant will undertake the groundwork for future studies to fill the evidence gap surrounding non-MDR drug resistant TB.

Further research

• More research in Population Health & Health Systems
• More research in the UK.