Project description
Transmission of asymptomatic tuberculosis
Current interventions for tuberculosis (TB) focus on M tuberculosis infection or symptomatic disease. However, emerging evidence suggests that the natural history of TB is more complex and varied than previously known. In fact, recent studies have shown that up to 50 % of laboratory-confirmed TB cases in prevalence surveys report no traditional symptoms, highlighting the potential for subclinical (or asymptomatic) TB to contribute to transmission. Funded by the European Research Council, the TB-QUEST project aims to better characterise subclinical TB and identify its significance in transmitting the disease using pathogen genome sequencing. The project will improve our understanding of the subclinical stage of the natural history of TB, and its potential implications for case finding and global TB control policies.
Objective
Tuberculosis (TB) remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality around the world. The majority of TB control policies rely on the binary paradigm of TB, which focus on interventions tackling ‘latent’ TB infection and ‘active’ TB disease stages. However, recent evidence disputes this longstanding conceptualization of TB natural history, demonstrating that TB exists on a continuous spectrum of bacterial and immunological responses. Several active case-finding studies have shown that around 50% of the cases in whom Mycobacterium tuberculosis was isolated in sputum were asymptomatic. Subclinical (asymptomatic) TB has lately attracted increased scientific interest since it could play an important role in TB transmission, despite the absence of cough. However, beyond limited evidence on TB transmission based on modelling studies using retrospective data collection, there is not a single field study showing a direct transmission from an index subclinical TB case to a secondary laboratory-confirmed case. If subclinical TB does spread the disease, the consequences for global TB control and research are of paramount importance. I propose to characterize the subclinical TB stage within the natural history of TB and to understand its role in spreading the disease.
I have designed a field epidemiological study (TB-QUEST) with the potential to show evidence of effective transmission from subclinical TB cases to close contacts, using pathogen genome sequencing. Additionally, by using innovative wearable technology, I will assess whether objective tools to measure classical TB symptoms match the self-reported absence of symptoms. Thus, I might challenge the current definition of subclinical TB and the usefulness of current TB screening algorithms. Lastly, I will study the clinical trajectory of subclinical TB in order to improve our understanding of its natural history, duration of infectiousness, and factors associated with self-clearance or progression to symptomatic disease.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- social sciences sociology demography mortality
- humanities history and archaeology history
- medical and health sciences health sciences public health epidemiology
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine pneumology tuberculosis
- natural sciences biological sciences genetics genomes
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2023-STG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
08036 Barcelona
Spain
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