The ASCENT project empowers people living with tuberculosis (TB) in South Africa, Ethiopia, the Philippines, Ukraine and Tanzania by providing them with digital adherence technology (DAT) for their treatment. These tools can remove some of the financial, social and time-related burden of the commonly-used directly observed treatment (VOT). Thesesa Macheru, mother of five, tells you about her experience with DAT.

53-year-old Theresa Macheru from South Africa kept losing weight. She decided to go to a clinic to find out why. A test came back saying she had multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), meaning she needed to take medication.

Theresa was offered to join the ASCENT study and use the smart pillbox for her medication. At first, she wasn’t sure how it worked. Now she says: “If you don’t have a box, you will forget to take your pills. You will take the pills at the wrong time if you don’t have the box, not aware you are taking your pills at the wrong time.”

In this video, Theresia shows you how easy it if to use the smart pillbox.

The Unitaid funded and supported ASCENT project in South Africa is led by KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation together with The Aurum Institute and in partnership with London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and PATH.