Preventing the return of TB
RECENT-TB is exploring whether a short course of antibiotics taken after TB treatment can prevent disease recurrence and how this could be targeted at those who would benefit most.
Why recurrence after TB treatment matters
Around one in ten people who successfully complete TB treatment experience relapse or reinfection within two years. RECENT-TB addresses this relatively neglected period after treatment.
Recurrence remains common
Every year, around 1.5–2 million people in sub-Saharan Africa are treated for TB, and recurrence contributes a substantial share of the TB burden.
Prevention may help
Secondary preventive treatment is already used in selected high-risk groups, but evidence for wider use is still limited.
Targeting is important
Risk stratification may allow preventive treatment to be directed to those most likely to benefit rather than offered to everyone.
Testing prevention and identifying who is most at risk.
The RECENT-TB trial is a hybrid effectiveness- implementation trial. The main trial will recruit 1,806 participants who have completed treatment for pulmonary TB. Half (903 participants) will receive 12 weekly doses of isoniazid + rifapentine (3HP) while the other half will not. All participants will be followed up for 2 years after enrolment.
Embedded studies will evaluate if simple blood tests can predict who is most at risk for developing recurrent TB, collect implementation and costing data to inform porential scale up and evaluate the diagnostic performance of a new test (TB-MBLA) for the diagnosis of recurrent TB.
Research designed for real-world impact
RECENT-TB combines clinical research, implementation and costing evidence to inform future TB policy and practice.
Prevent recurrence
Determine whether secondary TB preventive treatment with 3HP reduces TB recurrence after
successful treatment.
Identify persons at higher risk of recurrence
Evaluate simple clinical markers and develop a personalised risk assessment that could be used to select persons for secondary TB preventive therapy
Support scale-up
Generate implementation and costing evidence to help national TB programmes consider secondary prevention in policy and practice.
Research designed for real-world impact
The project combines a large clinical trial, evaluation of clinical markers for risk prediction, a diagnostic accuracy study, as well as implementation research, and economic evaluation.
Identifying persons at higher risk of recurrence
.Evaluate simple clinical markers and develop a personalised risk assessment that could be used to select persons for secondary TB preventive therapy
Evaluate diagnostic accuracy of new diagnostics
Determine the accuracy of a new diagnostic test (TB MBLA) for the diagnosis of recurrent TB
Support scale-up
Generate implementation and costing evidence to help national TB programmes consider secondary prevention in policy and practice.
Main Study
Recruit
Enroll people after treatment for pulmonary TB.
Randomise
Half receive 3HP, 12 weekly doses of isoniazid plus rifapentine. Half will not receive 3HP
Follow
Follow-up participants for two years with periodic testing to assess recurrence and implementation outcomes.
Translate
Use results to inform policy, practice, targeting approaches, and future scale-up.
Simple tests that may help predict who is most at risk.
RECENT-TB is collecting data on four potential markers and evaluating how well they predict recurrence.
Finger-prick inflammation test
Point-of-care anaemia test
Computer-aided chest X-ray interpretation
Molecular detection of live TB bacteria
From treatment completion to two years of follow-up.
Recruit
Enroll people after treatment for pulmonary TB.
Randomise
Half receive 3HP, 12 weekly doses of isoniazid plus rifapentine.
Follow
Track participants for two years to assess recurrence and implementation outcomes.
Translate
Use results to inform policy, practice, targeting approaches, and future scale-up.
The trial emphasizes respectful and continuous community engagement. Community members should understand the study, their rights and what to expect when they enroll into the study.
Participant-facing content area for FAQs, eligibility, procedures, confidentiality, and Community Advisory Board updates.
Information people can use
Eligibility, study duration, procedures, rights and confidentiality
CAB updates and plain-language meeting notes.
Clear routes for participant questions and feedback.
A record of progress
Enrollment milestones
Meetings & training
Publish plain-language summaries from consortium, CAB, TSC and IAB meetings, plus study-team training highlights.
Evidence & resources
Follow Us on X.
Replace @IDIMakerere with the official RECENT-TB X handle before public launch.
Follow Us on X.
Replace @IDIMakerere with the official RECENT-TB X handle before public launch.
Study Team
Our Collaborators
Funded by the Global Health EDCTP3 programme.
RECENT-TB is designed to generate evidence on secondary prevention of TB, implementation considerations, risk stratification and cost-effectiveness to help inform future policy and practice.