Global TB Summit

 

Prof. Kon is a Respiratory Physician and Head of Service for TB at Imperial College London Healthcare NHS Trust. He is also Professor of Respiratory Medicine at the National Heart & Lung Institute, Imperial College London. He is the chair of the UK National MDRTB Clinical Advice Service. His research interests include the clinical and immune diagnosis of TB and the delivery of care and management of the disease.

Dr. Martinez is a faculty member in the Department of Epidemiology at Boston University School of Public Health. He uses epidemiological and quantitative approaches to study high-risk populations in high tuberculosis burden settings. These include children, incarcerated persons, and persons living with HIV or diabetes.

Prof. Sutherland is the head of the MRC Gambia TB research group which consists of the TB case-contact (TBCC) cohort and the TB immunology laboratory. At the summit, she will present data on transcriptomic and proteomic signatures across the spectrum of TB infection, disease and treatment response. In addition, she will share data on novel tests for TB translated from early biomarker studies.

Paul Elkington is Professor of Respiratory Medicine at the University of Southampton and Honorary Consultant in Respiratory Medicine. His talk at the summit, “Immune check-point inhibitors and TB,” will describe the evidence that cancer immunotherapies can increase tuberculosis reactivation, discuss the underlying mechanism, and conclude with the implications for clinicians.

Dr. Nyang'wa is a British-Malawian Medical Director of Médecins Sans Frontières and Chief Investigator of TB-PRACTECAL - a phase II-III MDR-TB clinical trial pivotal in the change of WHO guidelines for the treatment of rifampicin-resistant TB. The WHO has recently recommended BPaL(M), a six-month all-oral regimen for the treatment of rifampicin-resistant TB. In his talk, he’ll summarize the efficacy, safety and economic evidence from the NiX, ZeNiX and TB-PRACTECAL clinical trials supporting this recommendation.

Dr. Seddon is a Reader in Global Child Health at Imperial College London, an Associate Professor at Stellenbosch University, and a Consultant in Pediatrics Infectious Diseases at St. Mary’s Hospital in London. His talk, “An update in TB & Pediatrics,” will discuss new diagnostic approaches, including stool microbiology and the use of treatment decision algorithms, the use of shortened treatment for non-severe disease, optimized therapy for TBM, new drugs and regimens for children with MDR-TB and new models of care.

Dr. Menezes de Souza is a Pharmaceutical Biochemistry Specialist in Pharmaceutical Care Management and has Master's in Biotechnology and Biosciences, with a concentration in Cellular and Molecular Biology, focused on MTB. In her talk at the summit, she’ll focus on the evidence for BPaL-based rifampicin-resistant TB treatment.

Ms. Altass is the NHS England lead for the TB program. She co-authored, with UKHSA, the TB Action Plan for England, 2021 –2026. Her main focus is ensuring the delivery of the latent TB testing and treatment program for NHS England, plus supporting TB services and commissioners to provide TB services that best meet patients’ needs. This includes the initiation in 2023 of the ‘Get It Right First Time’ (GIRFT) TB Project, which ensures that a patient receives equally timely and effective investigations, treatment and outcomes. At the summit, she’ll talk about “Retaking the fight against TB after the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Dr. Robinson is the head of UKHSA’s national TB unit, a consultant clinical microbiologist and clinical lead for the National Mycobacterial Reference Service. She is the mycobacterial theme lead for the NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in collaboration with UKHSA and Imperial College, London. She has ongoing research interests in mycobacterial diagnostics and public health, including whole-genome sequencing, TB transmission and non-tuberculous mycobacteria. At the summit, she’ll talk about “Retaking the fight against TB after the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Prof. Gradmann works at Oslo University’s Department for Community Medicine and Global Health. He has published extensively on the history of infectious diseases. He is the author of “Laboratory Disease: Robert Koch's Medical Bacteriology”. His current research is on two fields: the history of antibiotic drug development and how it came to an end; and the history of tuberculosis in East Africa.

As a medical doctor from Moldova with postgraduate training in field epidemiology at Emory University, Dr. Dadu acted as an international servant at USAID's, CDC's and PATH's missions since 1999. He has been involved in implementing multiple field projects on TB, HIV and viral hepatitis in eastern Europe and central Asia, strengthening countries' capacities in epidemiological intelligence, research and digital health.

Dr. Arnikov is a medical doctor and a public health practitioner based in IOM’s Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, overseeing the agency’s Health Promotion and Assistance pillar. He joined IOM in 2014 and has since worked as a Regional Migration Health Officer and Regional Thematic Specialist on Migration Health in East and Southern Africa, the Middle East, and the Americas. Before IOM, he worked with the Global Fund, UNICEF and the World Bank.

Prof. Walker is an infectious diseases physician and a clinical microbiologist; a Wellcome Trust clinical research fellow based at Oxford University Clinical Research Unit, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; and an Associate Professor at the University of Oxford. He has worked in TB research for 13 years, with interests ranging from pathogen genome sequencing for epidemiology, diagnostics and drug resistance prediction, to observational clinical studies and clinical trials.

Prof. Wang works at the Division of Chest, Department of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital. He is the Vice Chairman of National Taiwan University School of Medicine and the President of Taiwan Society of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease. In his lecture, he will explain in detail the epidemiology of drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB), high-risk groups for poor outcomes and how to properly treat it.

Prof. Min is in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the Catholic University of Korea College of Medicine. He is also a member of the Central Steering Committee for the Public-Private Mix Tuberculosis Control Project (NTCP, ROK). At the summit, he’ll present the current trends of tuberculosis and national policies in South Korea.

Dr. Scandurra is the Chief Research Officer at The University of Sydney, specializing in infectious diseases and microbiology. In addition to her academic and research roles, Gabriella has been contracted by the Australian Department of Immigration and Border Protection to revise Australia's TB pre-screening for migrants, implementing an innovative and evidence-based TB screening method.

Dr. Nakahashi is the Chief of the Pediatric Infectious Disease department at the Hyogo Prefectural Amagasaki General Medical Center. Dr. Nakahashi, who has experience with pediatric and infant tuberculosis cases and is actively introducing IGRA for infection diagnosis, will give a lecture on his experience and the usefulness of QuantiFERON in infection diagnosis.

Dr. Sachdeva is currently serving as the Regional Director for The Union South East Asia at the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease. He is a distinguished figure in the field of public health with expertise in tuberculosis control and healthcare administration. Throughout his career, he has played an important role in strengthening health systems, promoting Public-Private Mix in tuberculosis control, supporting TB collaborative activities.

Prof. Golub is experienced in developing and implementing research studies in TB in Brazil, South Africa and India, leading and managing large research teams in these countries. I recently completed a cluster randomized trial comparing the operational impact of two diagnostics for latent TB among HIV-infected patients in South Africa and I am currently leading a NIH R01 project looking at implementation of a new regiment for latent TB infection among people with HIV in Brazil, and an R01 randomized clinical trial in India investigating case detection strategies for people recently completing TB therapy.

Dr. Oladele currently works in Public Health both at the local level and in the international setting. He has provided tuberculosis care to a very diverse population for the past 28 years. Some of his other areas of interest include working on social justice issues – including but not limited to economic development, community development, environmental justice, human rights, human development and social change. In his talk, he will discuss the impact of migration on the TB epidemiology and explore the different populations involved, like refugees, immigrants and other transient foreign-born populations.

Dr. Chimara is a Researcher with experience in tuberculosis and mycobacteriosis diagnosis, surveillance, quality management, biosafety and laboratory network management. She has a Master of Science from the University of São Paulo, PhD in Microbiology and Immunology from the Federal University of São Paulo and MBA in Health Innovation Management from Institute Butantan.

Dr. Saunders is currently an Academic Clinical Fellow at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, where I am completing my speciality training in Public Health Medicine. Previously, I was a Clinical Research Fellow at the Department of Infectious Diseases at Imperial College London, UK. My research focuses on developing and evaluating novel, equitable, and practical strategies to improve healthcare and associated social determinants in low- and middle-income settings.

Prof. Wilkinson is a Physician-Scientist who is Principal Group Leader at The Francis Crick Institute and director the Centre for Infectious Diseases Research in Africa in Cape Town. His personal research interest is in the understanding, prevention and management of tuberculosis and HIV associated tuberculosis. His presentation will review aspects of pathogenesis and treatment of PCTB and TBM with emphasis on recent findings and future opportunities to ameliorate the severe ill effects these disease forms cause in hundreds of thousands of people.

Dr. Barrett has completed infectious diseases and general internal medicine registrar training in 2023 and is currently finishing an MD at Imperial College NHLI on severe tuberculosis in London. Her talk title at the summit is “Causes, timings and clinical features of tuberculosis-associated deaths in a low-incidence country.”

Dr. Belton is a Consultant in Respiratory Medicine at the Whittington Hospital working as part of the North Central London TB team. Her case presentation explores some of the ethical and clinical considerations faced by clinicians treating patients with advanced TB disease. Her TB case study in the summit will focus on ethical and clinical considerations faced by clinicians treating patients with advanced TB disease.

Dr. Dunleavy is a Respiratory Consultant in St George’s Hospital in London and is the tuberculosis, non-tuberculous mycobacterial and Bronchiectasis lead within the trust leading a service for a large diverse group of patients. She has research interest in TB, NTMs and bronchiectasis. She graduated from University College Dublin and trained in Dublin and then London including The Royal Brompton, The Royal Free, Northwick Park and St George’s.