Throughout this extension, the project is dedicated to leveraging the knowledge and expertise of consortium partners and global forums. The extended ASCENT project, with added funding, will boost its original goal to lower the impact of tuberculosis (TB) by decreasing cases, deaths, and financial burdens. It will do so by creating conditions for accelerating the adoption of safer and more effective treatments for Rifampicin Resistant/Multidrug Resistant TB (RR/MDR-TB) in 8 countries.

The selection of the participating countries was conducted in consultation with Unitaid and World Health Organization (WHO), taking into account the RR/MDR-TB burden and the need for accelerating scale-up of shorter regimens. While all countries are gearing up for the programmatic use of BPaLM regimens, they vary in their implementation progress, requiring support at different levels with specific technical assistance needs. ASCENT will tailor supportive actions to achieve the best outcome per country context.