Our 2020 World TB Day Symposium is taking place on Tuesday 24th March

On the 24th of March, the world commemorates the day in 1882 when Dr Robert Koch announced his discovery of Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

We take this opportunity each year to host a one day symposium that highlights the current TB situation in the UK and around the world, the research we are carrying out in our institutions, the people involved in managing control programmes and patient care, and the people and communities that TB affects.

The London symposium is now in its eleventh year and this year will be held at the UCL Institute for Child Health. This event is a collaboration between UCL-TB, the LSHTM TB Centre, the Francis Crick Institute and Birkbeck, University of London.

Booking Options:

Attendees have the option to book for:

Morning session: (09:10 – 12:40, with registration from 08:30)

Afternoon session: (13:40 – 17:30)

All day: (0910 – 1730)

Note: This event is free, and currently oversubscribed, so we request that you only book sessions you think you will be able to attend. We request that if you have booked and now find that you are unable to attend, please cancel your booking so that other people may use your space, either via Eventbrite or by contacting tb@ucl.ac.uk. If you have booked the whole day and wish to cancel just a morning or afternoon session, then email us and we will alter the booking.

Refreshments: When you book you will be able to select whether you would like a bagged lunch, and attend the post-event drinks reception.

Live video stream: For those unable to attend in person, we will once again be live-streaming the talks online.

Photography: Note that there will be a photographer present; if you do not wish to be photographed, please email us at tb@ucl.ac.uk.

We very much hope that you will be able to join us on the day, and look forward to another great symposium.

Programme

Please note that all times and talk titles are subject to change

08:30 Registration and coffee

09:10 Welcome and Introductory Remarks

09:30 Session 1: Voices from the front line: Patient, healthcare provider, and policy maker perspectives
Chair: Dr Toyin Togun (LSHTM
Dr Virginia Bond (LSHTM) How do social and economic factors, and stigma, affect the timeliness of diagnosis and treatment adherence in Zambia?
Dr Mishal Khan (LSHTM) How can we motivate community health workers and private healthcare providers to engage more actively in managing TB?
Ms Jacqui White (UCL) TB into the 21st Century – more than just medicine
Dr Sedona Sweeney (LSHTM) Value TB – costs of rolling out TB services in 5 high burden countries
Professor Marc Lipman (UCL) IMPACT: patient experience across the UK
Panel discussion and Q&A

10:50 Coffee break (with Voices from the Front Line videos and posters)

11:20 Session 2: How to Find the Missing Millions?
Chair: Dr Katharina Kranzer (LSHTM)
Dr Kwame Shanaube (ZAMBART) Four years of active case finding as part of delivering the PoPART trial in Zambia and SA
Dr Palwasha Khan (LSHTM) TB diagnosis using Xpert Ultra and culture in the “Zero-TB Karachi (Pakistan)” project – successes, challenges, and lessons learned
Dr Katherine Fielding (LSHTM) Closing the gap between diagnosed and incident TB with a system for 1-day diagnosis in Uganda
Dr Lara Goscè (UCL) E-DETECT TB in Romania
Panel discussion and Q&A

12:40 Lunch break (with Voices from the Front Line videos and posters)

13:40 Session 3: Redefining Latency
Chair: Professor Mahdad Noursadeghi (UCL) Introduction
Dr Hanif Esmail (UCL) Not active Not latent: Challenges and possibilities of identifying bacteriologically negative disease
Dr Pranab Haldar (University of Leicester) Diagnosing early TB in a low burden setting
Professor Anne O’Garra (The Crick Institute) The host transcriptome in TB
Professor Helen Fletcher (LSHTM) The future of TB vaccines
Panel discussion and Q&A

15:00 Coffee break (with Voices from the Front Line videos and posters)

15:30 Link up with University of California, San Francisco (see here for the UCSF programme / registration)

15:50 Session 4: Accelerating Drug Discovery & Development
Chair: Dr Dimitrios Evangelopoulos (UCL)
Dr Nick Furnham (LSHTM) Understanding the molecular consequences of mutations associated with drug resistance in TB for future drug development
Dr Luiz Carvalho (The Crick Institute) M. tuberculosis metabolism and novel antibiotic strategies
Professor Sanjib Bhakta (Birkbeck, University of London) Repurposing pain-killers: new approaches to an ancient disease
Dr Anil Koul (LSHTM) Discovery and development of Bedaquiline for treatment of drug resistant tuberculosis - role of innovation in global public health
Dr Angela Crook (UCL) A new regimen for XDR-TB - Results of the Nix-TB trial
Panel discussion and Q&A

17:10 Special guest (Zolelwa Sifumba (South Africa) - clinician, MDR-TB patient, activist)

17:20 Summary and close (Professor Beate Kampmann, LSHTM)

17:30-19:00 Drinks reception (with piano music from composers and singers affected by TB)

We are delighted that this event is sponsored by the following companies and organisations actively contributing to the control of TB, and working in partnership with researchers and control teams: Cepheid, FIND, Insmed and Oxford Immunotec.

Event image is the property of Dr Mishal Khan, reproduced with permission