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Dr. Madhukar Pai and his team awarded Grand Challenges Canada distinction for research tackling TB in children in West Africa

Dec 6, 2017

An estimated 1 million cases of tuberculosis (TB) disease occur in children in any given year, killing as many as 210,000 – a staggering number one team of scientists from the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI‑MUHC) and McGill University has taken steps to solve.

Dr. Madhukar Pai, associate director at the McGill International TB Centre based at the RI-MUHC and McGill University, and his team was awarded a $100,000 grant from Grand Challenges Canada for their pioneering work to improve the diagnosis of TB in children under the age of 15. Grand Challenges Canada named the team as one of the top 20 Canadian ideas to improve maternal and child health.

“Detecting TB disease in children is difficult and we need to come up with better tools to protect this vulnerable population,” said Dr. Pai, scientist from the Infectious Diseases and Immunity in Global Health Program at the RI-MUHC and Director of McGill Global Health Programs. “We are grateful to the Government of Canada for supporting our global TB work. TB is the biggest infectious killer today, and we need innovative tools and approaches to tackle this epidemic.”

Dr. Pai, who previously received a grant from Grand Challenges Canada for using mystery patients to assess quality of tuberculosis care, and his team were awarded the grant for developing biomarkers aimed at diagnosing the disease in children. Learn more