Unmet needs in tuberculosis diagnosis and case management in LMICs

Image courtesy of GHESKIO

A week after the UN High-Level Meeting on the fight against tuberculosis, the Milken Institute School of Public Health, George Washington University & The Mérieux Foundation USA organized a seminar on Unmet needs in tuberculosis diagnosis and case management in LMICs. Experts from the front lines in TB high-burden countries shared their perspectives and presented partnerships at work to address the unique challenges faced in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The symposium showcased innovative strategies that could potentially be expanded to other high-burden countries, including successful models for community-based interventions and novel approaches for TB prevention and childhood TB in the most vulnerable, hardest to reach populations. It also looked at the challenges facing national TB programs to address unmet needs and factors impeding their resolution.

Program

• Introduction by Dr. Jon Andrus, Adjunct Professor, Milken Institute School of Public Health
• Keynote presentation on today’s TB landscape by Dr. C. Robert Horsburgh, Jr., Professor of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, Global Health and Medicine, Boston University and Member of the Board of Directors, the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (IUATLD)
• Challenges and Successes in Child TB in Bangladesh by Dr. Sayera Banu, Senior Scientist & Head, Emerging Infections, Infectious Diseases Division at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research (icddr,b), Bangladesh
• Challenges and Benefits of Active Case Finding Campaigns in the Community – Haiti by Dr. Vanessa Rouzier, Director of Research at GHESKIO, Haiti
• Roundtable discussion moderated by Dr. Kevin De Cock, Former Director of the U.S. Center for Disease Control (CDC) Center for Global Health and CDC program in Kenya:
  ‘Improving TB prevention, detection and treatment in high-burden countries: successful models, innovative interventions and their implications for the future’
  with panelists Dr. Vanessa Rouzier, Dr. Sayera Banu & Dr. Jacob Creswell, Head, Innovations and Grants, Stop TB Partnership
• Comments by Dr. Charlotte Colvin, Senior TB Technical Advisor, USAID
• Symposium conclusion by Dr. Lynn Goldman, Dean of the Milken Institute School of Public Health