KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation
KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation is an international non-profit organization dedicated to the fight against tuberculosis (TB), still the deadliest infectious disease in the world. KNCV is an international center of expertise for TB control that promotes effective, efficient, innovative and sustainable tuberculosis control strategies in a national and international context. We are an organization of passionate TB professionals, including doctors, researchers, training experts, nurses and epidemiologists. We aim to stop the spread of the worldwide epidemic of TB and to prevent the further spread of drug-resistant TB.
Background
Diagnosis of TB in children is made difficult by children not being able to expectorate sputum, which leads to both overdiagnosis on clinical grounds and incorrect treatment due to lack of drug resistance profiles. A non-sputum-based sample, such as stool, which could be run on the Xpert MTB/RIF cartridge could provide bacteriological confirmation of disease, along with information on resistance to rifampicin. Different processing protocols for stool specimens have been developed that warrant evaluation, most of which are technically complex and require specific reagents and/or equipment. KNCV has developed a simple one-step stool processing method with no specific infrastructure or equipment requirements that has the potential to improve access to rapid diagnostic confirmation and appropriate treatment for children.
People living with HIV (PLHIV) often also find expectoration of sputum challenging and therefore are often either not diagnosed, or given a smear-negative diagnosis, with no possibility for drug resistance testing. Use of a non-sputum-based sample, such as urine, has been proven to work well to diagnose TB in PLHIV. This could confirm TB infection and would lead to more accurate diagnosis and earlier treatment for PLHIV. It is hypothesized that the use of a screening algorithm that incorporates symptom screening, CD4 testing, Xpert MTB/RIF and urine LAM testing (FujiLAM) will increase the yield of bacteriologically confirmed TB cases, reduce time to TB diagnosis and treatment, and improve patient outcomes among
PLHIV.
KNCV is implementing projects focusing on providing children in Ethiopia with access to non-invasive diagnostic methods for TB and to assess how the above two diagnostic interventions (stool testing for children and urine testing for PLHIV) can be incorporated into diagnostic algorithms to allow for improved diagnosis of TB in children and PLHIV, and generate implementation guidance to support WHO policy recommendations.
Purpose of the position
KNCV is looking for two Zonal Project Coordinators that will coordinate and facilitate the implementation of the non-invasive diagnostic methods for TB in children in two zones of SNNPR, Ethiopia. Zonal towns in two zones of the Southern Nations’s, Nationalities’s and Peoples’ Regional State (SNNPRS) have been selected. Tentative zones selected based on poverty and TB burden criteria are (formerly) Gamo Goffa and Benchi Maji. The Zonal Project Coordinators will be stationed at the zonal towns, co-located with zonal health departments.
Position in the organization
The Zonal Project Coordinators will report to the Project Coordinator and they will work in close coordination with the Senior Laboratory Advisor.
Duties and responsibilities
The Zonal Project Coordinator will:
Specific Responsibilities
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