Complementing tuberculosis control strategieswith end-user innovations in Sub-Saharan Africa

Tuberculosis (TB) is responsible for nearly two million deaths per year around the world, and mainly affects the poorest communities. How can this happen when we know that TB disease can be prevented and treated since over 50 years? When “top-down” guidelines fail to generate impact, end-user innovations are required for adapting these recommendations to specific contexts. The innovations proposed in this work tend to cover a wide range of operational and scientific challenges related to TB control. These innovations include (1) tackling under-detection with active screening interventions led by TB-affected populations, (2) the development and implementation of connected laboratory networks, and (3) the development of innovative surveillance systems and technologies that allowed the detection of previously unrecognized outbreaks of multi-drug resistant TB in South-Africa. This work took place in the Democratic Republic of Congo, in Belgium, in Rwanda and in South-Africa.