London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

On 16^th December 2021, the Childhood ‘Omics’ and Mycobacterium tuberculosis-derived BiOsignatures (COMBO) Project team at the MRC Unit The Gambia at LSHTM held a capacity building training for health workers at the Unit’s campus in Fajara.

A total of twenty-two (22) healthcare workers comprising nurses and Leprosy and Tuberculosis Inspectors (LTI) in the Kanifing Municipality and West Coast Region were trained with skills to evaluate novel diagnostics and lung health in children with presumed tuberculosis (TB).

Dr Esin Nkereuwem, paediatrician and lead facilitator of the training said, “Childhood TB remains an under-estimated, under-treated, and under-researched disease even though more than half of the new childhood TB cases in The Gambia are missed each year. This workshop served as an important forum which brought together frontline healthcare workers involved in the diagnosis of childhood TB in The Gambia, as well as in the Unit.”

The MRC Unit The Gambia at LSHTM has enjoyed a long-standing cordial relationship with the Gambia National Leprosy and Tuberculosis Programme (NLTP). The COMBO project builds upon this relationship and the successes and collaborations of the Unit’s childhood TB research programme over the last eight years.

Dr Nkereuwem added, “Through this relationship, the Unit has continually provided support in terms of the diagnosis of childhood TB, thus helping to increase the notification of childhood TB cases in the country. We look forward to continuing this strong relationship and to working together to achieve the End TB targets of ensuring that no child in The Gambia dies from this preventable disease.”

Ramatoulie Barrow, a Registered Nurse at the Fajikunda Health Centre highlighted the significance of the training saying, “This will help us to better approach children with presumed TB and to conduct and establish diagnostics using innovative solutions. It is very important for such trainings to be held more frequently for health workers.”

Morro Saidykhan, Leprosy and TB Inspector at the Brikama District Hospital commended the efforts of the MRCG at LSHTM.

“I have been working for over 10 years as a Leprosy and TB Inspector and this type of training is one of a kind. It is very timely because at our facility, it is sometimes very difficult to diagnose TB but with this training we will understand how to diagnose and manage TB especially in children,” he said.

The Vaccines & Immunity Theme at the MRC Unit in The Gambia at LSHTM has conducted several diagnostic and preventive studies on children with presumed tuberculosis, establishing the Unit as an internationally recognised centre for childhood TB research.

Led by Professor Beate Kampmann, the COMBO project is an NIH-funded multi-centre study with collaborators in the USA, Uganda and South Africa. The project will recruit and follow up children under 15 years with presumed TB in the Greater Banjul Area of The Gambia. The project aims to use a quantitative approach to assess the value of new bedside and laboratory tools and methods for the diagnosis of childhood TB.

Professor Kampmann stated, “Children with TB often present not just in TB clinics, but also in general child health clinics. This is the reason why we need to involve the healthcare workers in all settings in recognising the signs and symptoms of this highly prevalent infection and get the children onto treatment quickly. The workshop has laid important foundations for all of us working across facilities in collaboration with the health services of The Gambia”, she said.