Centre for Tuberculosis Research participated in the 49th Union World Conference
Sixteen researchers from Centre for Tuberculosis Research participated in the 49th Union World Conference on Lung Health during 24–27 October 2018, in The Hague, Netherlands. The conference was attended by over 4,000 researchers, policy makers and advocates.
The conference featured more than 1,000 scientific presentations, abstract sessions, plenaries, symposia, workshops, satellites and a Community Space open to the general public.
Jad Shedrawy, PhD candidate, presented a poster on quality of life measurements in patients with latent tuberculosis.
Joanna Nederby-Öhd, PhD candidate, presented a poster on IGRA-screening coverage among asylum seekers in Stockholm County, Sweden. Data that is also included in the E-DETECT TB multi-country database.
Olivia Biermann, PhD candidate, presented preliminary data from one of her PhD studies in a symposia on active TB case finding titled: Reaching all of those in need by extending active TB case finding in the community. Olivia's work is also part of the IMPACT-TB project on active TB case finding in Nepal and Vietnam.
Kerri Viney, postdoc, convened and presented in a post graduate course titled: An introduction to national TB patient cost surveys, in collaboration with colleagues from WHO, an activity aligned to the work of the SPARKS network.
Tom Wingfield gave an oral presentation on long-term outcome data from a randomised controlled trial of socioeconomic support for TB-affected households in Peru, which will be adapted in Nepal and Mozambique for the multi-country "Beyond TB" trial in the coming years with support from the SPARKS network.
Professor Knut Lönnroth presented the E-Detect project and a newly established multi-country database on latent TB screening and management for migrants in EU-countries in two different scientific symposia.
He also participated in the E-Detect Expert Stakeholder Meeting where representatives form National Public Health Agencies developed a toolkit for national TB plan development in low-incidence countries.
A one-day seminar was organized to identify gaps in knowledge for control strategies of MDR / XDR TB and to suggest and discuss important research questions to address them, with leading experts from the WHO, the supranational reference labs, universities and high burden counties.
Gabrielle Fröberg, senior consultant Infectious Diseases and postdoc, presented her study on outcome of TB screening among pregnant women in Stockholm.
Mikael Mansjö, microbiologist at the Public Health Agency of Sweden, presented a study on the correlation between routine phenotypic DST, MIC and resistance mutations in Swedish MDR isolates.
Lina Davies Forsman, PhD candidate and Consultant Infectious Diseases, presented her study showing reduced time to sputum culture conversion with the appropriate use of pyrazinamide in MDR-TB patients.
The NFSC-VR collaboration team, Dr Yi Hu from the Fudan University in Shanghai and Jim Werngren, Maria Wijkander and Mikael Mansjö from the Public Health Agency of Sweden chose to come to the Hague with the climate in mind, therefore train instead of air travel. Yi Hu and Mikael had presentations and Jim and Maria were coauthors (together with others). Everyone took part in project related meetings.
