Biography

Dr. Issa Sabi is a Paediatrician and clinical researcher at the National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR) in Tanzania, with over 16 years of experience advancing research on tuberculosis and HIV in children.

His work focuses on overcoming diagnostic and therapeutic barriers in childhood tuberculosis in high-burden settings. His early research demonstrated the feasibility and added diagnostic yield of sputum induction for bacteriological confirmation of childhood tuberculosis in Tanzania, informing national practice and strengthening case detection. He was among the first investigators to evaluate the diagnostic performance of Xpert MTB/RIF Ultra in children through a multicenter comparative accuracy study, contributing critical evidence on improving detection of paucibacillary TB. He also served as a co-investigator in the EDCTP2-funded RaPaed-TB consortium evaluating novel diagnostics for childhood tuberculosis.

Dr. Sabi has extensive experience in tuberculosis therapeutics and prevention research, including longstanding involvement in tuberculosis drug trials and tuberculosis vaccine trials.

In HIV research, he has led major implementation studies on early infant diagnosis and maternal viral load monitoring, serving as Principal Investigator of the EDCTP2-funded LIFE and LIFE2Scale studies (https://www.life-hivinitiative.org).

He is a member of Tanzania’s Childhood Tuberculosis Technical Working Group, and the Research and Innovation Committee of the Paediatric Association of Tanzania.