An Activist's Guide to the TB LAM Test

Treatment Action Group (TAG) announced the launch of its updated Activist’s Guide to the LAM Test and the LAM Availability Dashboard. These new resources seek to help advocates and activists ensure that the LAM test for TB is made available wherever people living with HIV present to care.

TB is the number one killer of people living with HIV/AIDS, causing one in three of all AIDS-related deaths. People living with HIV are at increased risk of developing TB, and of dying from it—especially when they have advanced HIV disease, or AIDS. The LAM test can rapidly and easily diagnose TB in people living with HIV, and has been shown to reduce deaths among people with AIDS.

LAM testing has been available and recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) since 2015, yet uptake within national TB and HIV programs remains limited. In 2019, the WHO strengthened and expanded its guidance on the use of LAM testing for TB among people living with HIV, recommending its use for all people living with HIV, (1) who have signs and symptoms of TB, (2) who are seriously ill, or (3) who have AIDS, with less than 200 CD4 cells/mm3 for inpatients and less than 100 CD4 cells/mm3 for outpatients.

An Activist’s Guide to the LAM Test provides important messaging and strategies to support in-country advocacy and activism, and together with the LAM Availability Dashboard, indicates where targeted advocacy interventions can help improve access to this life-saving test for TB among people living with HIV.

You can view and download these new resources here.

For additional information on the status of LAM testing, and barriers to uptake in countries with high burdens of TB and HIV, please see this new article, Adoption and uptake of the lateral flow urine LAM test in countries with high tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS burden: current landscape and barriers, by Singhroy et al, published in Gates Open Research.

Source: TAG