TB: a partnership for the benefit of research and community

A public-private partnership (PPP) involving Stellenbosch University in South Africa and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has benefited both research and a local community where tuberculosis (TB) is endemic. The venture, part of GSK's Action TB programme, enabled the University's Desmond Tutu TB Centre to establish an epidemiological field site in two suburbs of Cape Town where the annual risk of TB infection is 3.5%. Collaboration between the centre and GSK focused on the development of a surrogate marker model able to predict patient outcome with relative accuracy. Such models may be useful tools for diagnosis/prognosis and for shortening clinical trials of novel TB agents. Other research findings stemming from the Action TB partnership suggest that exogenous reinfection is responsible for the majority of relapse cases and that adults often have infection with multiple strains. The local community has been empowered by the implementation of the Directly Observed Treatment, Short-course (DOTS) programme and benefited from improved education about health in general and TB in particular. The centre has also provided employment for many local people in field work and other roles. Meanwhile, national and international publicity about the centre's work has aided in generating the essential political will to allocate resources and shape healthcare priorities, benefiting this impoverished community.