Research Roadmap for Tuberculosis Transmission Science: Where Do We Go From Here and How Will We Know When We’re There?

High rates of tuberculosis transmission are driving the ongoing global tuberculosis epidemic, and there is a pressing need for research focused on understanding and, ultimately, halting transmission. The ongoing tuberculosis–human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) coepidemic and rising rates of drug-resi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of infectious diseases 2017-11, Vol.216 (suppl_6), p.S662-S668
Main Authors: Auld, Sara C., Kasmar, Anne G., Dowdy, David W., Mathema, Barun, Gandhi, Neel R., Churchyard, Gavin J., Rustomjee, Roxana, Shah, N. Sarita
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biomedical Research - methods
Communicable Disease Control - methods
Disease Transmission, Infectious - prevention & control
Humans
Supplement
SUPPLEMENT ARTICLES
Tuberculosis - epidemiology
Tuberculosis - prevention & control
Tuberculosis - transmission
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Summary:High rates of tuberculosis transmission are driving the ongoing global tuberculosis epidemic, and there is a pressing need for research focused on understanding and, ultimately, halting transmission. The ongoing tuberculosis–human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) coepidemic and rising rates of drug-resistant tuberculosis in parts of the world add further urgency to this work. Success in this research will require a concerted, multidisciplinary effort on the part of tuberculosis scientists, clinicians, programs, and funders and must span the research spectrum from biomedical sciences to the social sciences, public health, epidemiology, cost-effectiveness analyses, and operations research. Heterogeneity of tuberculosis disease, both among individual patients and among communities, poses a substantial challenge to efforts to interrupt transmission. As such, it is likely that effective interventions to stop transmission will require a combination of approaches that will vary across different epidemiologic settings. This research roadmap summarizes key gaps in our current understanding of transmission, as laid out in the preceding articles in this series. We also hope that it will be a call to action for the global tuberculosis community to make a sustained commitment to tuberculosis transmission science. Halting transmission today is an essential step on the path to end tuberculosis tomorrow.
ISSN:0022-1899
1537-6613
DOI:10.1093/infdis/jix353