Today, Thursday May 25 at 16:00 - the first joint TBnet/ESGMYC webinar
This year TBnet SC has established collaboration on webinars with the group for Mycobacteria of European Society for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Disease (ESCMID).
More information about the webinar and the link here:
Save the date! European Advanced Course on Clinical Tuberculosis
25th-27th of October 2023, Athens, Greece
The course is organised by Karolinska Institute in collaboration with Hellenic Thoracic Society.
More information here: https://www.tbnet.eu/post/save-the-date-european-advanced-course-on-clinical-tuberculosis
TBnet Annual Meeting & TBnet election 2023
Registration to the TBnet Annual meeting is ongoing, please register before the deadline to participate on site and to take part in the election to the TBnet Steering Committee online.
More information here: https://www.tbnet.eu/post/tbnet-annual-meeting-milano-september-8th-election-to-the-steering-committee
TBnet attended the UNITE4TB 2023 Annual Meeting
UNITE4TB is a public-private partnership with representation from academic institutions, small- and medium-sized enterprises, public organizations, and pharmaceutical companies. TBnet is part of Work Package 11 “Implementation, dissemination & communication”.
During the last week of April, more than 120 UNITE4TB Consortium members and key external stakeholders gathered in Nijmegen, the oldest town in the Netherlands, for the 2023 UNITE4TB Annual Meeting. The overall status of the project, the achievements made over the last year, and the plans for the future were discussed during the two-day meeting. Each of 12 Work Packages presented their progress, and talks were given by UNITE4TB Scientific Advisory Board, Ethics Advisory Board, and Young Investigators Group. There were also dedicated plenary sessions on topics such as the engagement of policymakers and funders, and the progress of the UNITE4TB Phase 2B/C clinical trials.
Two small-group sessions on communication and community engagement were organized. We organized our thoughts on the different TB communities:
those in government and administration of national TB programmes,
those in the locality where TB was being diagnosed, and
the social context of individuals living with a TB diagnosis and in treatment.
We discussed how to empower the last of these groups, to reduce stigma and improve health service provision for the second community and the overview required for the first of these communities to reduce the incidence of TB. The second session was to design a public program with a specific aim in mind and the media opportunities which would best fit with the message.
On the third day, the 2023 UNITE4TB Symposium, a side event of the Annual Meeting, was held. It included a thematic workshop on new ways to promote Public and Community Engagement. Once a new drug regimen is identified, its adoption is affected by cost (the aim remains that each new regimen costs less than $500 per person, to be borne by the Global Fund for low- and middle-income countries) as well as the information necessary for the different TB communities. There was a discussion on how to reduce the delays in the publication of the evidence for a new regimen. Negotiations are in progress to encourage organizations that authorize the use of a new drug for TB to align their decisions and reduce costs for registration. The requirement of animal models to establish rifapentine as a suitable part of any new regimen was mentioned as a particular stumbling block. There will be a need to ramp up production once a new product had been proven to work (the demand for pretomanid was 20 times greater in the first three months of 2023 compared to all requests in 2022). The desire for fixed drug combinations and how these can be managed was noted.
Two members of the TBnet Steering Committee, Graham Bothamley and Irina Kontsevaya, represented TBnet at this year’s meeting. Irina Kontsevaya was also present in her capacity as the Co-lead of Work Package Biomarkers for treatment monitoring. Another TBnet Steering Committee member, Christoph Lange, was also present at the meeting in his capacity as the UNITE4TB Clinical Leader.
More information on the meeting and a photo gallery can be found here: https://www.unite4tb.org/newsroom/look-back-2023-unite4tb-annual-consortium-meeting-and-symposium
News from the TBnet partner from Riga, Latvia
The TBnet partners from Latvia - WHO CC for Research and Training in Management of MDR TB in 2023 have resumed their onsite postgraduate courses for TB clinicians at the TB and Lung Diseases Riga East University hospital. The first course was held from 19 to 26 April and was attended by 30 TB professionals from Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Ukraine and Latvia. The training course "Innovations in treatment and management of drug-resistant TB" is an exchange of experience course to scale up the competencies and knowledge of TB specialists in the clinical management of drug-resistant (DR) TB in line with the current European Regional TB Action Plan as well as the novel approaches and evidence in programmatic management of drug-resistant TB.
One of the key objectives of the course was to facilitate the exchange of clinical experiences, good practices and interventions among participants and facilitators coming from different countries in our region. The content of this course is therefore designed to be interactive, providing space for discussions, group work, and the exchange of views and ideas.
Over the 7 days of training, participants discussed the current evidence and latest guidelines for the diagnosis, treatment, and care of patients with DR-TB. They also visited the wards of the Centre for Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases and went on a field visit to the TB Ambulatory Department to learn about Latvia's experience in TB patient care in the outpatient setting.
WHO CC Latvia of the Centre of Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases, Riga East University Hospital is an international healthcare personnel capacity and competence-building center of excellence in the treatment and management of DR-TB established in 2004, the head of the center is Dr. Liga Kuksa, who is also the chair of the TBnet and the admin management is done by Liga Rusmane, the TBnet admin. WHO CC Latvia has extensive experience in the organization of custom-made international courses, conferences, and scientific/technical exchange of experience visits, as well as experience in in-country capacity building and provision of technical assistance, especially in countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
Swedish national TB Meeting & workshop on metabolomics in TB and other infections – registration open
A two-days hybrid event on August 31st - September 1st, 2023
The topic: new approaches in tuberculosis diagnostics and treatment
Place: Umeå University / University Hospital of Umeå Campus, Umeå, Sweden
Participation is free of charge.
The meeting is co-organized by COST Advance-TB and TB Center Arctic, Infectious Disease & Paediatric Departments, Norrland’s University Hospital, and Umeå University, Sweden with the participation of the Centre for Tuberculosis Research, Karolinska Institute and Swedish Metabolomics Centre, Umeå.
More information here:
