Professor Emma McBryde and her research team are using mathematical models to predict outcomes relating to TB research interventions. These include estimating the value of short course chemotherapy for MDR -TB, and estimating the burden of the impact of treatment of latent TB.
The team has developed a software tool through the Australian Tuberculosis Modelling Network (AuTuMN) collaboration with national TB programs in the Asia-Pacific and funded by the Global Fund for AIDS, TB and malaria. The software allows countries to predict the effect of different TB control activities, including costs and impact on TB epidemiology, specific to their context.
This tool has been used in three countries to date: Fiji, the Philippines, and Bulgaria, with plans to extend its use beyond these countries later in 2017.
Multistrain TB models are also being designed by AITHM Postdoctoral Research Fellow Dr Michael Meehan, and a growing cohort of postgraduate and early career researchers are joining work on the program.
