CNS: Liverpool 2016

Showing posts with label Liverpool 2016. Show all posts

Incompatible? Public health vs tobacco, alcohol and fast food industries

Shobha Shukla, Citizen News Service - CNS

[Read presentation of Prof Jeff Collin] Governments of over 180 countries that have ratified the global tobacco treaty had met recently earlier this month and adopted and advanced strong measures to stop tobacco industry interference in health policy and also to hold tobacco industry liable.The meeting formally called the Seventh Conference of the Parties to the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) concluded with commendable progress on WHO FCTC Articles 5.3 and 19 (liability). In this context, I find it pertinent to share some of the learnings from the 47th Union World Conference on Lung Health that was held in Liverpool last month.

TB anywhere is TB everywhere

Shobha Shukla, Citizen News Service - CNS

TB is still largely considered a poor man’s disease and is generally associated with the socially disadvantaged people living in low and middle income countries. But the story of Liam Joel Taylor proves that, being an air borne infection, TB can strike anyone anywhere.

Innovation is no longer a want, it is a need: People centric approach for MDR-TB management

Alice Sagwidza-Tembe, CNS Correspondent, Swaziland

It is essential that any healthcare program in its advancement does not forget the population for whom it is developed. At the recent 47th Union World Conference on Lung Health with the theme of ‘Confronting resistance: Fundamentals to innovations’, countries shared interesting food for thought and unique advanced approaches to people focused quality care for innovative management of MDR-TB.

Effective partnerships are necessary to increase tobacco control outcomes

Shobha Shukla, Citizen News Service - CNS

[Click here to listen or download this podcast] So said Dr Tara Singh Bam, Regional Advisor for Tobacco Control at the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union) on the sidelines of the 47th Union World Conference on Lung Health in Liverpool, UK.

Dr Tara Singh Bam

Dr Tara Singh Bam, Regional Advisor for tobacco control at the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union) spoke with CNS Managing Editor Shobha Shukla on the sidelines of the 47th Union World Conference on Lung Health in Liverpool, UK. Click here to listen or download this podcast. He reflects on past game-changing successes in tobacco control and calls for accelerating progress in implementing effective tobacco control in countries. He also advocates for broader partnerships among public health programmes across the board for improving outcomes. [Click here to listen or download this podcast]

Justice late is justice denied but still it is better late than never

Shobha Shukla, Citizen News Service - CNS

Dr Enos Masini

In December 2015, at the 46th Union World Conference on Lung Health in Cape Town, the TB Alliance (Global Alliance for TB Drug Development) and its partners had announced the availability of first-ever child-friendly fixed dose combinations (FDC) for treatment of drug-sensitive pediatric TB.

Dr Jonathan Cranston, a veterinary surgeon since past 10 years with mixed animal practice across the United Kingdom shared his personal lived experience with tuberculosis: not human TB but bovine TB. [Listen or download this audio podcast here]. He was in conversation with CNS Managing Editor Shobha Shukla on the sidelines of 47th Union World Conference on Lung Health in Liverpool, UK. [Click here to download or listen to this podcast]

We all can work, but together we win: Unite to #EndTB

Shobha Shukla, Citizen News Service - CNS

[Listen or download the podcast] Despite commitment from the governments to end tuberculosis (TB) by 2030 (one of the targets of Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs) the pace of TB decline casts serious doubts on eliminating TB in the next 14 years.

UK Veterinary surgeon's battle with bovine TB

Shobha Shukla, Citizen News Service - CNS

Dr Jonathan Cranston, UK

[Listen or download this podcast] Have you ever heard of animals transmitting TB to humans? I am sure many of us have not. And yet in 2015 there were an estimated 149,000 such new human cases of zoonotic (bovine) TB globally and 13,400 deaths. Unlike conventional TB, which is caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis), zoonotic TB in humans is caused by the bacterial strain Mycobacterium bovis (M. bovis) which belongs to the M. tuberculosis complex. M. bovis causes bovine TB in cattle and zoonotic TB in people. At the 47th Union World Conference on Lung Health in Liverpool, I met a 35 year old veterinary doctor Jonathan Cranston from UK, who is a survivor of zoonotic TB.

Is it worthwhile to decentralize drug-resistant TB services?

Alice Sagwidza-Tembe, CNS Correspondent, Swaziland

Multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) and extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB) are global challenges. Treatment of both requires prolonged and toxic therapies. Centralised inpatient treatment, delivered by specialist doctors and nurses in a specialised hospital, is still a common practice in many MDR-TB high-burden countries.

"I felt like a prisoner in the paediatric ward…"

Alice Tembe, CNS Correspondent, Swaziland

Eleanor Frame

…So said Eleanor Frame, an 18 year old teenager from UK, who survived TB. Eleanor shared her story at the 47th Union World Conference on Lung Health in Liverpool. She said that she had no idea about what TB was, and nether did her classmates, until she herself was diagnosed with it at the age of 14.

Dr Mario Raviglione, Director of the Global Tuberculosis Programme at the World Health Organization (WHO) was in conversation with CNS Managing Editor Shobha Shukla at the sidelines of 47th Union World Conference on Lung Health in Liverpool, UK. This interview is part of CNS Inspire series. [To listen or download the podcast, click here]

Transforming hope into reality for patients of drug-resistant TB

Shobha Shukla, Citizen News Service - CNS

Multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) remains a public health crisis. As per WHO’s Global TB Report 2016, 480,000 people fell ill with MDR-TB in 2015, with 3 countries - India, China, and Russia - carrying the major burden and together accounting for nearly half of all MDR-TB cases globally.

Health ministers commit to reverse the tide of lung diseases and NCDs

Shobha Shukla, Citizen News Service - CNS

The first press meet at the 47th Union World Conference on Lung Health, being currently held in Liverpool, saw the Ministers of Health from Philippines, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe reflect on the successes and challenges of responding to the global epidemic of TB, tobacco related diseases and Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs).

Great strides in MDR-TB treatment

Alice Tembe, CNS Correspondent, Swaziland

Final results of a potentially game-changing study on a nine-months treatment regimen for multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB) were announced at the 47th Union World Conference on Lung Health in Liverpool, UK. This study carried out in nine Francophone countries has shown a treatment success rate of 82% with limited adverse side effects - a significant stride towards stopping TB.

Without community participation we cannot end TB

Shobha Shukla, Citizen News Service - CNS

Community focus was the overriding theme at the Annual TB Alliance Stakeholders Association Meeting held in Liverpool, just ahead of the 47th Union World Conference on Lung Health. Community representatives, Maurine Murenga and Sarah Mulera, shared their experiences from the ground, regarding the powerful, yet under utilised, role which affected and key populations can play to turn the tide against TB.

This is an audio recording of an exclusive webinar for media where WHO Global TB Programme and International Union Against TB and Lung Disease (The Union) experts shared the scientific highlights of the 47th Union World Conference on Lung Health in Liverpool, UK. [Click here to listen or download this audio podcast]