Events

Date

Monday 22nd January 2026 (Hybrid event)

Event info

Dr Jinsoo Min (Associate Professor at the College of Medicine, Catholic University of Korea in Seoul), spoke on "A TB Cohort Study in Korea".

This was a joint UCL-TB / LSHTM TB Centre event.

Resources

The video will be made available here when ready

Date

Monday 28 July 2025

Event info

A seminar by Professor Graeme Meintjes (Clinical Professor of Infectious Diseases at Queen Mary University of London, and Professor of Medicine at the University of Cape Town)

Date

11 February 2025

Event info

Families affected by tuberculosis (TB) face many challenges because of different health, social, and structural problems which overlap and interact. Traditional approaches to tuberculosis screening do not address pre-existing risks. In this symposium we will explore recent research findings on the multiple impacts of tuberculosis on members of affected households, and discuss how programmers, policy makers and funding agencies can support person-centred tuberculosis screening.

Resources

Watch the recording

PROGRAMME:

CHAIRS:
Lele Rangaka
Katharina Kranzer

1. Setting the Scene – A Civil Society Perspective on Person-Centred Care
   Tenzin Kunor
2. Burden of Chronic Non-Communicable Diseases Among Household Contacts in Tanzania and South Africa
   Tina Minja
3. Integrated Multi-Component Health Checks for TB Household Contacts in Zimbabwe
   Edson Marambire
4. Evidence from an Individual Participant Data Meta-Analysis on Comorbidities Among TB Household Contacts
   Yohhei Hamada
5. Global Perspectives on Integrated TB Screening and Care for Household Contacts
   Claire Calderwood
6. Panel Discussion / Audience Q&A
   "Where Do We Go From Here?"

Biosketches

Tenzin Kunor is an MDR-TB survivor and a member of We Are TB, a TB survivor-led advocacy and support organization in the United States. He is a global policy senior associate for RESULTS. Tenzin has a strong passion for combining affected community narratives with research to understanding of lived experiences, empower communities, and to power movements. Through his work he strives to strengthen communities and addresses social inequities in health and education.

tenzinkunor@gmail.com

Yohhei Hamada is an Infectious Disease trained Clinical Research Fellow at UCL. He has experience in policy development and technical assistance related to tuberculosis prevention at the global and national level, including leading evidence reviews to inform WHO guidelines. He is a co-investigator of a tuberculosis prevention trial in people with diabetes and a lead investigator of a multimorbidity sub-study in the CUT-TB project.  

y.hamada@ucl.ac.uk

Lilian Tina Minja is a medical doctor and researcher at the National Institute for Medical Research - Mbeya Centre. Dr Minja has a Masters’ in internal medicine and more than 10 years’ experience in tuberculosis clinical trials and implementation research, ranging from evaluation of new diagnostics, shorter treatment regimens, preventive therapy, tuberculosis among people who use drugs and post tuberculosis lung disease.

tminja@nimr-mmrc.org

Edson Marambire is a public health expert, clinical researcher and PhD candidate at the University of Munich (LMU), Germany. With a strong background in clinical research and public health in Zimbabwe, Edson's has over a decade’s experience implementing HIV and TB programmes. His research aims to address the unique challenges faced by vulnerable populations in resource-limited settings while integrating innovative, community-focused solutions.

Edson.Marambire@lrz.uni-muenchen.de

Claire Calderwood is a medical doctor and researcher at The Health Research Unit Zimbabwe and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, UK. As part of a Wellcome-funded Clinical PhD Fellowship in Global Health, her research is exploring the multimorbidity and person-centred tuberculosis screening among TB-affected households in east and southern Africa.

Claire.calderwood2@lshtm.ac.uk

Date

Thursday 6 February 2025

Event info

An event to discuss how we should respond to the current state of UK TB.

Resources

Watch the recording

Programme

Chairs: Jess Potter / Marc Lipman (UCL-TB)

Speakers

• Lord Nick Herbert, co-chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on TB in the UK; chair of the Global TB Caucus
• A nurse's perspective: Sarah Murphy (Clinical Lead TB Specialist Nurse based in Kent)
• TB in England: Esther Robinson (Head of TB, UKHSA)
• TB in Northern Ireland: Jillian Johnstone (Consultant in Health Protection, Public Health Agency, Northern Ireland)
• TB in Scotland: Hazel Henderson (Consultant, Public Health Scotland)
• TB in Wales: Tabitha Kavoi (TB Lead, Public Health Wales)
• Insights in policy and practice: Martin Allen (GIRFT National Clinical Lead for Respiratory Medicine)
• TB: The case for investment: Lara Gosce (Assistant Professor of Infectious Disease Modelling, LSHTM)

(for slide sets, please contact the speakers directly, or email tb@ucl.ac.uk and we will forward)

Panellists

• Samara Barnes (Affected Community co-lead, UKAPTB)
• Jonathan Cohen (Consultant in Paediatric Care, Guys and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust)
• Shakib Hussein (Tuberculosis Outreach Team, North Central London TB Service)
• Rachel Manners (Head of Respiratory Policy, UKHSA)
• Adrian Martineau (Professor of Respiratory Infection and Immunity, QMUL)
• Priyal Shah (Head of Communities and Inequalities, North Central London ICB)
• Mark Tickner (Infection Control Lead, London Borough of Enfield)
• Gerrit Woltmann (TB / Pneumonia service lead, University Hospitals Leicester NHS Trust)
• Fatima Wurie (Department of Health and Social Care)
• Dominik Zenner (Infectious Disease Epidemiologist, QMUL and General Practitioner in East London)

Date

Wednesday 15 January 2025

Event info

Join us for a seminar by Professor Jonathan Golub (Johns Hopkins Bloomburg School of Public Health), who will speak on "Co-morbidity care for people with TB, during and after TB treatment".

Resources

Watch recording

Date

 Tuesday 8 October 2024

Event info

Join us for a webinar exploring the latest updates in TB preventive treatment for individuals exposed to drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB).

In September 2024, WHO released much-anticipated new guidelines on TB preventive treatment (TPT), featuring a strong recommendation for drug-resistant TPT (DR-TPT): a 6-month daily levofloxacin regimen for individuals exposed to multidrug- and rifampicin-resistant TB .

This webinar focused on the evidence behind this new recommendation, addressing both its benefits and potential risks. We discussed community perspectives and the practical challenges of implementing DR-TPT in diverse settings. A panel of global experts offered insights into effective programmatic implementation and highlight areas where further research is needed.

Resources

Watch recording

Agenda:

• Welcome (Prof Lele Rangaka (UCL); Dr Dennis Falzon (WHO))
• Overview of updates to WHO consolidated guidelines on TB preventive treatment (Dr Avinash Kanchar)
• Community perspectives on preventive therapy for DR-TB (Dr Stephanie Law)
• Combined analysis of efficacy and safety data from TB-CHAMP and VQUIN trials (Dr Trinh Duong)
• Impact of levofloxacin preventive therapy on microbiome and acquired drug resistance (Prof Greg Fox)
• Monitoring roll-out of DR-TB preventive therapy - master protocol (Dr Yohhei Hamada)
• Country experiences with implementation (Dr Maia Kipiani, Georgia; Dr Maja Stosic, Dr Vesna Vekovic, Serbia)
• Panel discussion – Implications of new guidelines for implementation and future research

Date

Wednesday 12 June 2024

Event info

Despite the development of new drugs, and trials to support more effective treatment regimens for TB, cure cannot be achieved without access to medicines. Drug pricing, access policies and patent issues are often responsible for inequalities in getting access to lifesaving medicines to people that need most. Our previous webinar gave an overview of these issues. In this webinar we explored, in-depth, access to Rifapentine. Two talks from experts in the field covered the evidence behind rifapentine's use in TB and unpacked specific barriers to its use. 

Resources

Watch recording

Speakers: 

• Gabriella Ferlazzo
• Christoph Lange

Date

Friday 1 March 2024

Event info

Despite the development of new drugs and trials supporting more effective treatment regimens for TB, cure could not be achieved without access to medicines. Drug pricing, access policies and patent issues were often responsible for inequalities in access to lifesaving medicines for those who needed them most.

This webinar aimed to describe those issues, identify the most relevant parts of the process to address, and highlight specific problems with individual drugs. Two talks from experts in the field were followed by discussions with panel members from different institutions across the world.

Resources

Watch recording

Speakers

• Christophe Perrin, TB advocacy Pharmacist, Médecins Sans Frontières
• David Branigan, TB Project Officer, Treatment Action Group

Panel members

• Tiziana Masini, independent consultant
• Tifenn Humbert, WHO Euro Office Technical Officer

Date

15-18 November 2023

Event info

The Union conference is a major TB research and policy event.

Resources

List of UCL presentations: 

Wednesday 15 November

Ibrahim Abubakar

• Panel discussion
• WHO Global #EndTB Symposium 2023
• Breakthroughs and opportunities to accelerate the TB response
• 10:30–11:20

Helgard Claassen / Al Leslie

• Oral presentation
• OA02 Subclinical TB: How to recognise it when you see it?
• 3-year outcomes in individuals with microbiologically proven subclinical TB (KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa)
• 11:14–11:23

Ibrahim Abubakar

• Plenary
• Closing the gap between evidence and implementation
• 12:00–13:00

Gareth Hughes

• Oral presentation
• OA06 Safety of regimens for R-R TB
• Predictive analyses of QT prolongation (STREAM Stage 2 trial)
• 15:37–15:45

Angela Crook

• Symposia
• Progress and innovation in developing shorter treatment regimens for people with TB
• Duration-ranging in Phase 2 trials (UNITE4TB and MAMS-ROCI Design)
• 15:47–16:01

Andrew Nunn

• Chair
• Treatment outcome of all oral short-course regimens for RR-TB
• 16:45–18:15

Al Story

• Symposia
• Providing people-centred TB care for vulnerable populations
• Active case-finding and differentiated care models in Delhi, India
• 17:04–17:18

Ruth Goodall

• Oral presentation
• Treatment outcome of all oral short-course regimens for RR-TB
• Long-term outcomes in STREAM Stage 2 (Phase 3 trial)
• 17:26–17:35

Thursday 16 November

Jess Potter

• Union Side Session
• Partnering with Policymakers to Implement UNHLM 2023
• Panel 1: Building a diverse community of advocates
• 08:00–10:00

Jess Potter

• Community Connect
• Reflecting on engagement with the UN High-Level Meeting on TB
• Using our voice to call for change
• 10:45–10:55

Gabriele Pollara

• TB Science
• Altered interleukin-6 signalling and risk of TB disease
• 11:05–11:10

Sanjib Bhakta

• TB Science
• Host-directed therapy
• Anti-inflammatory drugs for TB
• 17:13–17:23

Friday 17 November

Asad Zaidi

• Symposia
• International Consensus on Early TB (ICE-TB)
• Results from the 1st Early TB Symposium
• 10:20–10:32

Hanif Esmail

• Symposia
• International Consensus on Early TB (ICE-TB)
• Developing interventions for a new framework
• 10:57–11:10

Gabriele Pollara

• E-poster
• Immunology for early TB diagnosis
• Interleukin-6 signalling and TB risk (meta-analysis study)
• 12:55–13:00

Ankur Gupta-Wright

• Symposia
• New tests for TB screening and monitoring
• Patient-pathway analysis of TB treatment monitoring
• 16:01–16:15

Hanif Esmail

• Satellite session
• Rethinking clinical trial design for TB treatment
• UNITE4TB-01: Evaluating novel drugs
• 18:49–18:56

Saturday 18 November

Stella Fabiane

• Oral presentation
• TB control: from diagnosis to treatment outcome
• Fluoroquinolone choice and treatment outcomes in rifampicin-resistant TB
• 08:11–08:20

Ruth Goodall

• Oral presentation
• TB control: from diagnosis to treatment outcome
• Global individual patient data platform for TB treatment (TB-IPD)
• 08:35–08:44

Date

Friday 30 July 2023

Event info

After decades without new drugs for TB, more options had emerged. Bedaquiline (BDQ) had changed the TB treatment landscape as the first of these new drugs to be licensed for drug-resistant TB. Recent high-profile clinical trials that included BDQ had demonstrated efficacy with few adverse events against MDR/XDR TB, and in shorter regimens for drug-sensitive TB. For the first time in many years, the future had looked bright.

However, there were warning clouds on the horizon. Resistance to BDQ was already present and the capacity to detect it was limited. There was tension between the need for manufacturers to recoup development costs, the ability of those in need to afford the drug, and the global community’s responsibility to preserve its effectiveness for the most resistant cases. Clinicians were faced with difficult questions: how to balance the needs of an individual patient with those of the wider population; whether BDQ should be used for NTM infections where evidence was limited; which clinical trials should be prioritised; and what role BDQ should play in TB preventive therapy given the risks of resistance.

These questions were already being actively discussed and were expected to become more pressing over time. This workshop was therefore convened to explore them, presenting (a) the current situation, (b) possible future scenarios, and (c) perspectives from across the field, including TB survivors, policy experts, and researchers, not only in relation to BDQ but also emerging new drugs.

This expert panel discussion was co-organised by UCL-TB and the Africa Health Research Institute (AHRI; https://www.ahri.org). Participants with an interest in TB were invited to join and contribute to what was intended to be an informative discussion addressing one of the most significant challenges in the field.

Resources

Watch recording

Agenda

11:00-11:10 (all timings BST)

Welcome and introduction Limakatso Lebina (AHRI) and Marc Lipman (UCL)

11:10 -12:00

What do we know? Short presentations on the state of current knowledge:

• Patient perspective (Oxana Rucsineanu, TB survivor, Society of Moldova against Tuberculosis)
• Patient perspective (Phumeza Tisile, TB survivor, Advocacy Officer, TB Proof, South Africa)
• BDQ Resistance (Grant Theron, Stellenbosch University, South Africa)
• Clinical Practice (Lancelot Pinto, P.D.Hinduja National Hospital and Medical Research Centre, Mumbai, India)
• Trials/Future Directions (Francesca Conradie, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa)
• Policy (Teck Chuan Voo, National University, Singapore)

12:00-1320

What might the future be? The speakers (above) and panellists listed below will discuss a series of questions:

• BDQ Resistance (Rob Warren, Stellenbosch University, South Africa)
• Clinical Practice (Chen-Yuan Chiang, Taipei Medical University, Taiwan)
• Trials/Future Directions (Derek Sloan, University of St Andrews, UK)
• Policy (Christoph Lange, University of Lübeck, Germany)

1315-1330

Summary

Note that details may change. The workshop will be recorded and made available online after the event.

Speaker affiliations and short biographies

Chen-Yuan Chiang (MD, MPH, Dr Philos, Professor, Division of Pulmonary Medicine, Taipei Medical University, Taiwan; Senior Consultant, The Union) 
Professor Chiang is a clinician, specialized in respiratory and critical care medicine, obtained the degree of MPH at UC- Berkeley, US and DrPhilos at University of Bergen, Norway. He has been working with the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union), Paris, France as an international consultant since 2003. Currently, he is Director, Department of Medical Research, Wan Fang Hospital, Taipei Medical University; Professor, Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, College of Medicine, Taipei Medical University; and Technical Advisory Group on Tuberculosis (TB TAG) in the Western Pacific Region, World Health Organization  

Francesca Conradie (School of Clinical Medicine, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa) 
Dr Francesca Conradie leads a clinical unit dedicated to improving the diagnosis and treatment outcomes for both drug sensitive and drug resistant TB through clinical research and translation of research findings in national and international policy. She has had a key role in developing evidence for the safe and effective use of Bedaquiline in TB treatment, being the Principal Investigator for the TB Alliance NiX trial, which led to the registration by the FDA of BPaL, and its successor trial ZeNix. She heads the operational research introducing BPaL into the South African National TB Programme. 

Christoph Lange (Professor of Respiratory Medicine and International Health, University of Lübeck, Germany; Director & Secretary General, The Union)

Christoph Lange is the Medical Director of the Research Center Borstel, Leibniz-Lung Center, Germany, and the Head of the Clinical Tuberculosis Unit at the  German Center for Infection Research (DZIF). His scientific work focuses on drug-resistant tuberculosis and personalized medicine. He is the clinical co-lead of UNITE4TB, an international consortium for the evaluation of novel anti-tuberculosis medicines in clinical phase II studies.

Lancelot Pinto (Consultant Pulmonologist at the P.D.Hinduja Hospital and Medical Research Centre, Mumbai, India )
Dr Pinto is a clinician researcher with an interest in TB diagnostics and treatment. He has a Masters in Epidemiology from McGill University, where his research included validating radiological scoring systems for the diagnosis of TB (in collaboration with the University of Cape Town). He has consulted for the World Health Organization and USAID, and has a keen interest in knowledge translation and the practice of evidence-based medicine. His areas of interest include the management of drug-resistant tuberculosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and obstructive sleep apnea. He is actively involved in a private-public partnership for the care of patients with drug-resistant TB, and is a member of the executive committee of the state anti-Tuberculosis Association. He is a proponent of preventive respiratory care – smoking cessation, focusing on air quality/ventilation, and strategies to improve respiratory health have been key focus areas. 

Oxana Rucsineanu (Executive Director, Society of Moldova against Tuberculosis (SMIT) Association, Moldova; TB Global CAB member)
Oxana Rucsineanu has a Master’s degree in Public Health. Oxana is leading SMIT TB organization in Moldova, which provides psychosocial support, peer education and activities to end stigma, coordinating several projects focusing on the rights of TB people, comprehensive approaches to TB care and engaging communities in research and development. She is strongly committed to advocating for constructive partnerships and efficient treatment processes as well as to making TB voices heard in the global TB response. She is an active member of the different TB national platforms and committees in the country. Internationally, Oxana is engaged in various TB community forums, including TB CAB, TBEC, GCTA, TB People etc. 

Derek Sloan (Reader/Consultant in Infectious Diseases, School of Medicine, University of St Andrews, UK)
Dr Sloan is an Infectious Diseases physician working at the University of St Andrews and in NHS Fife. His interests include clinical trials of new treatments for tuberculosis, collaborating with partners from the PanAfrican Consortium for the Evaluation of Anti-tuberculosis Antibiotics (PanACEA) and the global TB Alliance. He has worked on TB Control in England and Scotland, and in several African countries (Kenya, South Africa, Malawi and Uganda). He contributes to the British Thoracic Society MDR-TB clinical advisory service and to Scotland’s multi-disciplinary TB network. 

Phumeza Tisile (Advocacy Officer, TB Proof, South Africa)
Phumeza Tisile was diagnosed with TB in 2010 aged 20 and was forced to stop her studies at Cape Peninsula University of Technology to go for treatment. Five months of treatment, first for drug-sensitive TB and then for multidrug-resistant TB were ineffective, and she was finally diagnosed with extensively drug-resistant TB. This led to complex treatment of taking 30 tablets a day and an injection, followed by 2 years of hospitalisation and loss of hearing for 5 years. Her research is now focused on the immediate and long-term impacts of being a TB patient and survivor including managing stigmatisation, disability and mental health conditions.

Grant Theron (Professor of Molecular Biology and Human Genetics, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University, South Africa )
Professor Grant Theron is Principal Investigator of the Clinical Mycobacteriology and Epidemiology (CLIME) Group at Stellenbosch University, which focuses on improving how patients with TB or drug-resistant TB are diagnosed, enhancing our understanding of TB transmission, and investigating whether the microbiome has any role in TB pathogenesis. He was part of the team that demonstrated the practicability of the Xpert molecular diagnostic platform, informing WHO recommendations on its use, as well as identifying limitations in practice, due to the clinicians’ treatment choices being only partly based on diagnostic results – emphasising the importance of understanding the context in which diagnostic tests are used. 

Voo Teck Chuan (Assistant Professor, Centre for Biomedical Ethics, National University of Singapore)
Trained in Philosophy and Medical Jurisprudence, Dr VOO Teck Chuan is Assistant Professor at the Centre for Biomedical Ethics, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore. He researches on healthcare ethics and the ethics of infectious disease control and prevention, with focus on emergency situations. He is on the Ethics Advisory Board for UNITE4TB, a consortium that is delivering novel phase 2 clinical trials in about 40 trial sites on four continents to accelerate the development of new TB drugs and regimens. Teck Chuan has served the WHO in various capacities in the development of clinical guidelines, and ethics guidance relating to epidemics and public health emergencies. 

Rob Warren (Professor and Director, SAMRC Centre for Tuberculosis Research Unit, Stellenbosch University, South Africa)
Professor Robin Warren is the Unit Director of the South African Medical Research Council Centre for Tuberculosis Research and Distinguished Professor at Stellenbosch University. He also heads the TB Genomics research group in the Division of Molecular Biology and Human Genetics in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. Prof Warren has co-authored over 400 papers in the field of Tuberculosis. Critical questions currently under investigation include using whole genome sequencing in combination with microbiological methods to determine associations between genotype and drug resistance phenotype, genome sequence variation and virulence and transmission, and targeted deep sequence to identify “pre-resistance”. 

Date

Friday, 16 June 2023

Event info

Attendees were invited to join the hybrid launch of a new WHO Collaborating Centre based at UCL, focusing on tuberculosis policy and programme implementation.

We were delighted to announce the launch of a new WHO Collaborating Centre (CC) for Tuberculosis Research and Innovation at UCL. This was the 50th active WHO Collaborating Centre in the UK and the first UK Collaborating Centre dedicated to TB.

WHO Collaborating Centres were designated by the Director-General and formed part of a global collaboration network supporting international research. This partnership with WHO Europe saw UCL contribute to the research and implementation of WHO TB programmes and activities worldwide.

The event introduced the new CC, with representatives from WHO and UCL outlining its context and planned role.

Resources

Agenda: 

Session 1: Welcome and introduction

10:30 Event host introduction. Dr Lele Rangaka, Institute for Global Health, UCL

10:35 Welcome, WHO, (pre-recorded video). Dr Hans Kluge, WHO, Regional Director for Europe

10:40 Welcome, UCL. What it means to have a research collaborating centre at UCL. Prof Geraint Rees, UCL Vice-Provost (Research, Innovation and Global Engagement)

Session 2: The role of WHO Collaborative Centres in a regional and global context

10:45 “Shifting gears towards ending TB, HIV and HCV in Europe by 2030”: Regional Action Plans 2023-2030. Dr Nino Berdzuli, WHO Europe, Director, Division of Country Health Programmes

10:55 The role of CCs in implementation research and application of innovations in ending TB globally by 2030. Dr Tereza Kasaeva, WHO Headquarters, Director of the Global TB programme

Session 3: The WHO Collaborating Centre on TB Research and Innovation: Goals, main objectives, and the future

11:05 UCL-TB research & how the CC will improve the future of research. Prof Marc Lipman, UCL-TB

11:15 How can IGH and the WHO CC work together to impact TB control? Prof Shabbar Jaffar, Director, Institute for Global Health, UCL

11:25 Prioritization of prevention to accelerate the impact on the TB epidemic in Europe. Alberto Matteelli, WHO CC on TB prevention, Brescia University

11:35 State actors support in ending TB worldwide / UNHLM-TB. Prof Susan Hopkins, Chief Medical Advisor, Clinical and Public Health Group, UK Health Security Agency

11:40 The scope of work of the Collaborative Centre. Dr Lele Rangaka, Institute for Global Health, UCL

Session 4: Designation ceremony

11:50 Handover of the plate. Dr Andrei Dadu, WHO

11:55 Closing remarks. Prof Ibrahim Abubakar, Dean of Population Health Sciences, UCL

Date

Thursday, 19 January 2023

Event info

Dr Karen Jacobson discussed “Studying substance use in tuberculosis transmission and outcomes in South Africa.”

The impact of infectious diseases on vulnerable populations had been a major concern within UCL, and we were pleased to host an open seminar by Karen Jacobson of Boston University, who had worked in this field for many years.

Her group studied the epidemiology of infectious diseases, with a primary focus on tuberculosis. Working with local and international partners, they combined epidemiological approaches with bacterial and host genetic data, alongside statistical models, to explore questions around TB transmission and outcomes.

She had established a highly productive collaboration with researchers in Cape Town, South Africa, with her work placing particular emphasis on understanding how substance use affected TB transmission and response to therapy.

She was an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Section of Infectious Diseases at Boston University School of Medicine, with a secondary appointment in the Department of Epidemiology at the Boston University School of Public Health.

Date

21 November 2022

Event info

In order to meet targets to reduce TB incidence, a scale-up of active case finding had been required. Prevalence surveys had repeatedly shown that a significant proportion of people in the community with culture-positive TB did not report symptoms. In 2021, the World Health Organization updated its recommendations for systematic TB screening, emphasising the importance of chest X-ray in identifying these individuals. For the first time, the guidelines also approved the use of Computer Aided Detection to support screening and triage.

A global survey of 63 National TB Programmes, representing over 80% of the global TB burden, had been conducted to better understand current policies, practices, challenges and opportunities in TB screening. This webinar presented the findings of the survey, alongside additional talks that provided context to the results. It was relevant to staff of National TB Programmes, as well as regional and international policymakers, researchers and academics working in this area.

Resources

Programme

(Times all in GMT(UK))

Co-chairs - Hanif Esmail (UCL) and Morten Ruhwald (FIND)

10:00 - Introduction and overview of WHO systematic screening guidelines.
Cecily Miller – World Health Organization – Global TB Programme

1015 - Results of Global NTP Survey on Policies, Practices and Challenges for TB Screening.
Liana Macpherson – University College London

1040 - Implementing TB Screening – Pakistan Experience.
Razia Fatima – Pakistan National TB Programme

1100 - Insights from Prevalence Surveys.
Rein Houben – London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

1120 - Digital Chest X-Ray and Computer Aided Detection for TB.
Sandra Kik - FIND

1140 - TB screening: Operational Research Questions and Opportunities.
Hanif Esmail – University College London

Date

30 September 2021

Event info

In this talk, Di Gibb describes the need for, and challenges in carrying out paediatric trials, on which she has spent much of her career, and how these can lead to changes in policy.  One recent example is the SHINE trial which aimed to reduce length of TB treatment in children.

Resources

Watch recording

About the Speaker

Professor Di Gibb - Professor of Epidemiology and Programme Leader of the Paediatric Programme of trials and cohorts at MRC Clinical Trials Unit at UCL

Professor Di Gibb is a paediatrician, Professor of Epidemiology and Programme Leader of the Paediatric Programme of trials and cohorts at the MRC Clinical Trials Unit at UCL.  Her work on infectious diseases in children has included tuberculosis (TB), HIV, malaria, hepatitis C and antimicrobial resistance.

Di has led numerous international studies, including the recent SHINE trial which was the first randomised controlled trial to assess the length of treatment needed for children with TB, rather than use data on adults.  Its demonstration that children with less severe TB disease can be safely treated for four rather than six months has led to changes in WHO policy and implementation.

Date

Monday 19 July 2021

Event info

In July 1921, the first dose of BCG was administered to an infant in a hospital in Paris. One hundred years later, it remained the only available TB vaccine and the most widely used globally, still given to over 100 million children each year.

To mark this milestone, the UCL-TB/Africa Health Research Institute BCG centenary symposium brought together three talks from leading academics, followed by a panel discussion. The event explored the impact of BCG as a vaccine and immunotherapy, what continued to be learned about protection against TB through its study, and the future pipeline for TB vaccines.

Resources

Watch recording

History and current knowledge of clinical use of BCG. Prof Mark Hatherill (Director, South African Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative (SATVI), University of Cape Town)

BCG, a live, attenuated, bacterial vaccine derived from Mycobacterium bovis, was first administered as vaccine against TB in on 18th July 1921.  It remains the only available TB vaccine and is the most widely used vaccine globally still given to > 100 million children each year. This talk will discuss what is known about the impact of BCG vaccination on the prevention of TB infection and disease, the heterogeneity of vaccine efficacy and duration of protection. In addition, it will cover what is understood about the non-TB specific effects of BCG and the role of BCG as cancer immunotherapy.

Professor Mark Hatherill is Director and leader of the clinical research team of the South African Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative (SATVI), University of Cape Town. A University of Cape Town medical graduate, he trained as a pediatrician and critical care sub-specialist. Since 2005, SATVI has conducted 28 clinical trials of nine novel TB vaccine candidates involving almost 6,000 participants, in addition to large epidemiological and immunological cohort studies. Prof Hatherill played a lead role in efficacy trials that tested the candidate vaccine MVA85A for prevention of TB disease in infants; BCG revaccination for prevention of M. tuberculosis infection in adolescents; and the candidate vaccine M72/ASO1E for prevention of TB disease in adults. He is Co-PI of the Regional Prospective Observational Research in Tuberculosis South Africa consortium. His current work focuses on the design and implementation of clinical trials of novel TB vaccines and biomarker-targeted TB prevention.

Lessons learned about protective immunity from IV BCG in non-human primates. Dr Trish Darrah (Vaccine Research Center, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIH)

As intradermal (ID) BCG administered at birth has variable efficacy in preventing pulmonary TB in adults, a major goal of our work is to investigate alternative routes of vaccination that may elicit cellular immunity in the lung sufficient to protect against TB disease. We recently published that BCG given intravenously (IV) elicited robust lung-resident T cell responses and provided a high level of protection against infection and disease compared to the same dose of BCG given ID or by aerosol. These data establish a benchmark of protection in a highly susceptible rhesus macaque model and provide an opportunity to study immune correlates and mechanisms of protection to facilitate proof-of-concept studies in humans.

Dr Patricia Darrah received her PhD in Microbiology & Immunology from Temple University School of Medicine in 2001. Since then, she’s worked in the Cellular Immunology Section of the NIH Vaccine Research Center studying how various vaccine platforms shape the magnitude, quality, breadth, and tissue distribution of CD4 and CD8 T cell responses after immunization. Tricia currently leads the VRC TB Unit under Robert Seder & Mario Roederer, investigating the immunogenicity and efficacy of new vaccines against tuberculosis in a pre-clinical nonhuman primate model.

BCG revaccination – how does this fit within the TB vaccine development pipeline? Dr Alex Schmidt (Head of Vaccine Development, Bill & Melinda Gates Medical Research Institute)

BCG vaccination is the cornerstone of TB prevention in infants and children, but the role of BCG revaccination of older children and adolescents is less clear. A recent trial in South Africa observed a 45% reduction in sustained IGRA conversion (a marker suggesting ongoing Mtb infection) in children who received a second dose of BCG as adolescents. Does this indicate that BCG revaccination could contribute to prevention of TB disease in adolescents and young adults? What data is needed to make informed policy decisions on BCG revaccination? Could BCG revaccination be part of the global End TB strategy? How do other vaccines in development compare to BCG revaccination?

Dr Alex Schmidt serves as Head of Vaccine Development at the Gates MRI. He joined Gates MRI in 2018 after seven years with GSK Vaccines, where he led vaccine development programs for dengue, RSV and influenza virus vaccines. Prior to GSK, Alex spent 10 years in the NIH intramural program, where he led a lab-based team and worked on translational and clinical development for viral vaccines. Alex received his M.D. from Freie Universität Berlin, trained in pediatrics at Charité and at The German Heart Center, and held a faculty position in pediatrics at Charité.