Alison Grant
Professor Alison Grant is member of faculty at AHRI and a professor of international health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). She initially trained as a physician specialising in infectious and tropical diseases and HIV medicine, and continues to see patients at the Mortimer Market Centre HIV clinic in London. Alison also holds a PhD in epidemiology. Her main research interest is improving care for HIV-positive people in resource-limited settings, and preventing tuberculosis (TB). Since 1997, Alison’s research has primarily been based in South Africa where her work has focussed on the development and evaluation of interventions to reduce HIV-related illness and death, and particularly HIV-related TB. Major projects she has led and collaborated on include a cluster-randomised trial investigating a point-of-care TB test and treat algorithm for people with advanced HIV disease; evaluation of South African national roll-out of Xpert MTB/RIF, a new TB diagnostic test replacing smear microscopy; investigation of how best to use Xpert MTB/RIF among people attending clinics for HIV care; linkage to care after a rifampicin-resistant Xpert MTB/RIF result and a trial comparing a single round of weekly isoniazid/rifapentine to periodic treatment.
Work at AHRI
At AHRI, Alison’s main research interest is to develop and evaluate interventions to interrupt TB transmission. Recent research includes a programme of work taking a novel ‘whole systems’ approach to preventing transmission of drug-resistant TB in health facilities; a project evaluating thoracic ultrasound for TB diagnosis; a project aiming to improve household contact tracing for TB, and a project investigating how TB infection is acquired among young people in rural KwaZulu-Natal. Current research includes a project looking at drivers of TB transmission in households. Future directions include research on detection, implications and management of subclinical TB.
Get in touch with Alison via alison.grant@ahri.org
Click here for a full list of publications.
Selected Recent Publications
Hanifa Y, Fielding KL, Chihota VN, Adonis L, Charalambous S, Foster N, Karstaedt A, McCarthy K, Nicol MP, Ndlovu NT, Sinanovic E, Sahid F, Stevens W, Vassall A, Churchyard GJ, Grant AD. (2017). A clinical scoring system to prioritise investigation for tuberculosis among adults attending HIV clinics in South Africa. PLoS ONE 2017;12(8): e0181519.
Karat AS, Tlali M, Fielding KL, Charalambous S, Chihota VN, Churchyard GJ, Hanifa Y, Johnson S, McCarthy K, Martinson NA, Omar T, Kahn K, Chandramohan D, Grant AD. (2017). Measuring mortality due to HIV-associated tuberculosis among adults in South Africa: comparing verbal autopsy, minimally-invasive autopsy, and research data. PLoS ONE;12(3):e0174097.
Churchyard , G. J., Fielding , K. L., Lewis , J. J., Coetzee , L., Corbett , E. L., Godfrey-Faussett , P., Hayes , R. J., Chaisson , R. E., & Grant , A. D. (2014). A Trial of Mass Isoniazid Preventive Therapy for Tuberculosis Control. New England Journal of Medicine. 370(4), 301-310. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa1214289.
Cox H, Dickson-Hall L, Ndjeka N, van’t Hoog A, Grant AD, Cobelens F, Stevens W, Nicol M. (2017). Delays to treatment and the treatment gap for drug-resistant tuberculosis in South Africa: a national retrospective cohort study assessing the impact of Xpert implementation. PLoS Med;14(2): e1002238. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1002238.
Churchyard, G. J., Stevens, W. S., Mametja, L. D., McCarthy, K. M., Chihota, V., Nicol, M. P., Erasmus, L. K., Ndjeka, N. O., Mvusi, L., Vassall, A., Sinanovic, E., Cox, H. S., Dye, C., Grant, A. D., & Fielding, K. L. (2015). Xpert MTB/RIF versus sputum microscopy as the initial diagnostic test for tuberculosis: a cluster-randomised trial embedded in South African roll-out of Xpert MTB/RIF. The Lancet Global Health, 3(8), e450-e457. doi: 10.1016/S2214-109X(15)00100-X.