World TB Day

On 24th March each year, the world commemorates the day in 1882 when Dr Robert Koch announced his discovery of Mycobacterium tuberculosis as the causative agent of tuberculosis

We have taken this opportunity to host a one-day symposium March every year since 2010, to highlight contemporary TB research, control measures and policy initiatives, and to discuss future challenges. Our aim is to connect with all the people who work on, or are affected by TB: researchers; people in surveillance, control and policy; those in diagnostics and patient care; and affected patients and communities. These symposia have been held annually since 2010.  Since 2014, we have partnered with the LSHTM TB Centre. In addition, as in recent years, we join with UCSF for one session as our day ends and theirs begins.

World TB Day Symposium 2024

Monday March 25th 2024

This was a hybrid event, with in-person and online attendance.

Location: The event took place at the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, 30 Guilford St, London WC1N 1EH, and  also be on Zoom.

We will add a link to the edited recording here, when it becomes available

Certificates are available on request for attendees; contact us at tb@ucl.ac.uk

Download the programme brochure PDF with information about speakers

Programme

0800 Arrival, registration and refreshments

0900 Welcome and introductory remarks

• Marc Lipman (Director, UCL-TB ) & Sedona Sweeney (Co-director, LSHTM TB Centre)    
• Shabbar Jaffar (Director, UCL Institute for Global Health) 
• Liam Smeeth (Director, LSHTM) 
• Lele Rangaka (Director, UCL-WHO Collaborating Centre for Tuberculosis Research and Innovation)

0920 Global TB advocacy post-UN-HLM 2023: A political perspective

• Lord Herbert (co-chair, Global TB Caucus)
• Eliud Wandwalo (Head of TB, The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria) Investing to End TB: Opportunities and Challenges

0935 Session 1: Inclusivity and accessibility

• Chairs: Jess Potter (UCL), Al Story (UCL)
• Samara Barnes (Affected Community co-lead, UKAPTB) First-hand experience of TB care
• Kate Yorke (Inclusion Health Division, UKHSA) TB in asylum seekers
• Lena Faust (LSHTM/McGill/Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia) TB in Peruvian prisons
• Limakatso Lebina (AHRI) Accessibility of novel TB treatments in a high burden country

1035 Break

1110 Session 2: Social and structural determinants

• Chairs: Katherine Horton; Palwasha Khan (LSHTM)
• Julia Pescarini (LSHTM) Studying social protection using linked data: how housing, cash and access to primary healthcare can improve TB in Brazil
• Chukwuebuka Ugwu (Zankli Research Centre) Addressing men's barriers to TB diagnosis and care in peri-urban settlements in Nigeria
• Finn McQuaid (LSHTM) Modelling the epidemiological impact of a nutritional intervention for TB-affected households
• Delia Boccia (WHO/LSHTM) Social protection and TB: what else do we need to know?

1210 Debate: This House believes that the current END TB targets should be revised

• Chair: Helen Stagg (LSHTM)
• Speaking for: Richard White (LSHTM)
• Speaking against: Suvanand Sahu (Deputy Director Stop TB Partnership)

1300 Lunch break

1400 Session 3: New therapeutic approaches

• Chairs: Kristine Arnvig (UCL); Hazel Dockrell (LSHTM)
• Al Leslie (UCL/AHRI) Do fibroblasts shape the TB granuloma?
• Gillian Tomlinson (UCL) Contribution of type I interferon responses to immune protection against mycobacterial infection
• Linzy Elton (UCL) The role of BCG strains in TB vaccine development
• Rebecca Clark (LSHTM) Modelling the health and economic impacts of varying delivery strategies for TB vaccines

1500 Break

1530 Session 4: Clinical trials: From design through to policy

• Chair: Ruth Goodall (UCL); Daniel Grint (LSHTM)
• Hanif Esmail (UCL) Evaluating the pipeline of new drugs: The design of the PARADIGM4TB trial
• Helen Ayles (LSHTM) The TREATS trial, its implementation and implications of its findings
• Chishala Chabala (LSHTM & UTH, Zambia) Implementing the results of the SHINE trial

1630 UCSF Link up

• Sophie Huddart (UCSF) on their symposium held on Friday 22nd

1640 Closing remarks

1650 Reception

For information, or for opportunities to sponsor the event, contact us at tb@ucl.ac.uk

Attendance certificates available on request.

Thanks to Mishal Khan for permission to use her photograph for this event.

We are grateful to our sponsors, who help us provide refreshments and an evening reception to people attending in-person, and high quality video for online participants