Peddtb: Pediatric Dose Dispenser for MDR-TB

Improving the efficiency & accuracy of pediatric MDR-TB treatment

The Problem

Despite estimates that 2 million and 25,000 children become infected with multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) and develop active cases, respectively, each year, there are no child-friendly formulations of most MDR-TB medications.

Currently, health workers must cut adult medications by hand, which is inaccurate and inefficient.

To get to these health workers, sick children and their parents/guardians must travel to a health clinic every day for up to two years, often missing school and work.

These obstacles affect the efficiency and accuracy of treatment, deter compliance, and can be crippling to a family's finances. This unsustainable burden on children, their caregivers, and health workers is simply unacceptable.

Our Solution

PeDDTB is a tool that will streamline this process, freeing up health workers' time and enabling decentralization of treatment.

PeDDTB will be piloted in collaboration with Partners in Health, Harvard Medical School, and operation asha in Peru, Pakistan, and india, alongside national partners. It has been developed in consultation with pediatric MDR-TB specialists at the sentinel project and TB Alliance, among numerous others.