Until the COVID-19 pandemic, tuberculosis (TB) was the leading cause of death from a single infectious agent, ranking even higher than HIV/AIDS. In 2022, an estimated 10.6 million people contracted TB and 1.3 million died of the disease worldwide. However, approximately 40% of people with TB were not diagnosed or reported to public health authorities because of challenges in accessing health facilities or failure to be tested or treated when they do.¹  

To bridge that gap, GH Labs is developing a low-cost, non-invasive diagnostic approach to more easily detect and ultimately treat patients with TB. Currently, TB pathogen diagnostics almost always require sputum, a mucus coughed up from the lower respiratory tract. Unfortunately, many patients are unable to produce sputum, and this collection method increases the risk of spreading the disease at the point of care. Further, tongue swab samples are much easier to process than sputum, allowing the development of lower-cost and easier to use molecular assays.

GH Labs research found that tongue swabs show promise as an additional sample type for TB diagnosis, with sensitivity approaching sputum-based molecular tests. Our results provide valuable insights for developing successful tongue swab-based TB diagnostics.

In 2023-2024, we will continue to build our evidence base and validate our findings. Ultimately, we aim to build the case for widespread development and production of tongue swab TB tests to more effectively and efficiently diagnose and therefore control spread in low- and middle-income countries.  

¹World Health Organization. Global Tuberculosis Report 2023 (2023).