Tuberculosis

Early detection of Tuberculosis (TB) with Professor Yan Bo at Institute of Infectious Diseases, Shanghai.

Tuberculosis (TB) has regained its status as the world’s leading infectious disease killer, once again surpassing COVID-19, and in 2024, approximately 10.7 million people fell ill with TB, but only 8.3 million were officially diagnosed and treated. This leaves a detection gap of 2.4 million people who continue to suffer and spread the disease unknowingly. In 2024 TB claimed 1.23 million lives in 2024 and it is the leading killer of people with HIV and a major driver of deaths related to antimicrobial resistance.

Detecting Tuberculosis (TB) at an early stage is critical because it is a silent disease that can be spread long before the person feels severely ill. In 2023 AQ Biotech and research teams from the Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Institute of Infectious Diseases, Shanghai started the project to detect TB at its early stage.

Sample collection has achieved required cohort and power calculation definitions and measurements will be conducted in 1H 2026. However, TB measurements as an airborne disease, requires special setup especially when the aim is to discover active disease biomarkers.