Uganda

Country Principal Investigator: Dr. Conrad Muzoora

Country project manager: Mrs Naome Natukunda 

Clinical facilities participating:

  • Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital (Internal medicine Ward, TB Ward, TB/HIV Clinic Mbarara)
  • Epicentre Mbarara research centre (laboratory)

Coordinating trial unit:
More information:

The trial will take place in the Mbarara Regional Reference Hospital (MRRH), located in Mbarara, in the Western region of Uganda. The Mbarara District has a population of approximately 600,000 inhabitants, and is mainly rural. MRRH is also a teaching hospital for the Medical School of the Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST) and is the referral hospital for the Western Region of Uganda. An average of 15 HIV-infected adults are hospitalised and diagnosed with TB per month in the medical ward. Staff of this ward have already participated in clinical trials involving patients with TB or cryptococcal neuromeningitis.

The Epicentre Mbarara research centre has a research collaboration with the MUST. MRRH and MUST have been conducting clinical research in Mbarara for more than 10 years. It participated in two phase 2 randomised controlled trial (RCT) investigating shortening the TB therapy period using high dose rifampicin [19, 21] and one international phase 3 trial (RIFASHORT trial, St Georges University London, NCT02581527). It has also participated in a phase III trial in HIV-TB co-infected patients [29]. The site has experience in conducting pharmacokinetic studies. The TB research laboratory performs smear microscopy, cultures for mycobacteria (Löwenstein Jensen and MGIT), Xpert MTB/RIF tests, Genotype MTBDRplus tests and has sample storage capacity.