October 2017
Guadalajara, Mexico
More than 10 million people die annually from infection with Mycobacterium Tuberculosis (TB). The emergence of resistant and increasingly deadly TB is associated with poor medication adherence to TB therapy. TB is spread through the air and as such is a major worldwide public health threat.
In May 2017, SiGH funded work by Dr. Jonathan Gonzalez-Garcia to include Mexican Bi-National TB infected patients in a clinical trial conducted by UCSD to test Wirelessly Observed Therapy versus the gold standard of care Directly Observed Therapy (DOT). DOT is used to support TB treatment monitoring and medication adherence support. However, DOT is very expensive and requires a highly developed public health system that does not exist in most high burden countries.
As TB treatment involves multiple medications and requires 6-12 months of treatment new technologies can offer both treatment monitoring and adherence support, but Low and Middle Income Countries don't even get to test these technologies. SiGH is working to make sure high burden countries get to review and test novel mobile/digital health technology that could make major differences t the epidemics in their countries and in so doing make the entire world safer.
In October 2017, this work, on which Dr. Gonzalez-Garcia was a co-author, was presented at the largest international TB conference know as the Union World Conference on Lung Health. This year’s conference was in Guadalajara, Mexico.