Stool4TB completes recruitment

The Stool4TB study is testing an innovative stool-based qPCR diagnostic platform as a potential point-of-care diagnostic tool for identifying tuberculosis (TB) infections in children and adults living with HIV/AIDS in Eswatini, Mozambique and Uganda.

On January 15, 2025, the study team confirmed the recruitment of the final participant in the paediatric cohort. Recruitment of the adult cohort was completed in early 2024. The study has successfully recruited 677 adults and 1,290 infants in the Stool4TB cohorts.

The  Stool4TB project also includes a feasibility and acceptability study on participants, parents or caregivers, and healthcare workers to collect data on their perceptions of and acceptance of stool-based TB diagnostics. The findings will provide vital information for the Stool4TB team and other similar studies on the feasibility of stool diagnostics as a point-of-care test and highlight any barriers that need to be addressed before broader implementation or adaptation of this method.

Preliminary data were presented at the Union Conference in November 2024, and the full data analysis is expected to be completed by June 2025.