Join PATH at The Union World Conference on Lung Health 2023

November 9, 2023 by PATH

During the Union World Conference on Lung Health 2023, PATH will highlight our work advancing innovations and evidence-based patient-centered tuberculosis prevention and care globally.

Although curable and preventable, 1.6 million people died from tuberculosis (TB) in 2021. It is estimated that 440,000 people get diagnosed with multi-drug resistant TB annually around the world and that only one in three people with drug-resistant TB accessed treatment. However, an estimated 74 million lives were saved over the past 20 years through TB diagnosis and treatment, and advancements like novel diagnostic methods and drug regimens offer hope for more rapid detection, treatment, and cure. The theme of the 2023 Union conference, Transforming Evidence into Practice, calls on the global TB community to leverage effective TB interventions so that together, stakeholders can reach all people affected by TB and the UN Sustainable Development Goal of ending the TB epidemic by 2030.

Integrating innovative and evidence-based interventions for TB screening, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention into primary health care (PHC) is crucial to ensure accessible, high-quality, and patient-centered TB services. During the conference, PATH will share best practices and lessons from our work around the globe to implement cutting-edge and proven methods that advance TB care, while adapting to context-specific emerging and ongoing challenges.

PATH speakers will describe the programmatic implementation of evidence-based practices implemented at the PHC level. In Ukraine, we will highlight providing cross-cutting health services for internally displaced persons alongside active case finding during wartime, digital adherence technologies, pediatric stool testing, QuantiFERON-TB Gold testing, and PATH’s systems-level work to address stigma in healthcare facilities. We will also highlight sustainable, government-owned active drug safety monitoring in Kazakhstan. We will share how PATH has ensured TB service provision amidst global challenges, including strengthening COVID-19 clinical management guidelines at the national and sub-national level in India and evaluating private sector TB services in the context of COVID-19 and political instability in Myanmar.

See below for a full schedule of PATH’s symposia, oral presentations, workshops, and posters at the conference.

Symposia

SP35 Closing the gaps in paediatric TB – expediting TB diagnosis in children to reach High-Level Meeting targets

Live session: Friday, November 17; 15:00 – 16:30 PM CEST

Where: Room 243

Given the UN high-level ministerial (HLM) targets for pediatric TB were not met, it is critical to accelerate progress toward reaching pediatric TB detection and treatment targets and identify the most promising strategies to optimize TB diagnosis for children. This symposium will provide examples of how advances in pediatric TB diagnosis have been integrated into routine practice and which data are used to monitor access to key interventions, including stool-based diagnosis, digital X-ray and new treatment decision algorithms. This symposium will provide examples of how advances in pediatric TB diagnosis have been integrated into routine practice and which data are used to monitor access to implementation of key interventions, including stool-based diagnosis, digital X-ray and new treatment decision algorithms. Presentations will describe how these interventions are increasing access to bacteriological testing for children, successful approaches to scale up, and ongoing challenges and remaining gaps in services.

This symposium will feature Gunta Dravniece presenting the experience of promoting and scaling up timely diagnosis of TB infection and TB disease among children in Ukraine.

Oral presentations

OA08-256-15 Exploring children-friendly communication on TB with age-appropriate information products

Session: OA08 How media can shape the message

When: Wednesday, November 15; 16:45 – 18:15 PM CEST (specifically 16:50 –16:58 PM CEST)

Where: Room 231M + 232M

Presenter: Gunta Dravniece

OA10-277-15 The implementation of systematic prescription of tuberculosis preventive treatment based on the results of the QuantiFERON®-TB Gold (QFT) test in Ukraine

Session: OA10 TB Infection and Improvement of TPT Uptake

When: Wednesday, November 15; 16:45 – 18:15 PM CEST (specifically 17:26 – 17:35 PM CEST)

Where: Room 212/213

Presenter: Volodymir Shukatka

OA09-269-15 Enabling access to innovative, child-friendly TB/DR-TB diagnostic methods: introduction of stool testing in Ukraine.

Session: OA09 Finding the missing children with TB

When: Wednesday, November 15; 16:45 – 18:15 PM CEST (specifically 17:26 – 17:35 PM CEST)

Where: Room 253

Presenter: Luidmyla Skoklyuk

OA22-376-16 Supporting access to COVID-19 vaccination and other health related services among internally displaced persons in Ukraine during the war

Session: OA22 Nothing about us without us!

When: Thursday, November 16; 15:00 – 16:30 PM CEST (specifically 16:08 –16:17 PM CEST)

Where: Room 242B

Presenter: Roman Rodyna

OA49-587-17 Role of Private Sector in TB Service Provision During COVID-19 and Political Instability in Myanmar

Session: OA49 Engaging private sector agencies to end TB

When: Friday, November 17; 15:00 – 16:30 PM CEST (specifically 15:41 – 15:50 PM CEST)

Where: Room 221M+222M

Presenter: Kyaw Zin Thann

OA50-598-17 Inclusion of digital technologies to support TB treatment adherence under routine practice in Ukraine

Session: OA50 Digital methodologies in TB prevention and care

When: Friday, November 17; 16:45 – 18:15 PM CEST (specifically 17:53 – 18:02 PM CEST)

Where: Room 231M+232M

Presenter: Aleksey Bogdanov

OA64-704-18 Ensuring sustainable TB case detection and active case finding in the context of war and COVID-19

Session: OA64 Sustainability of accessing services translated into quality care

When: Saturday, November 18; 10:15 – 11:45 AM CEST (specifically 10:29 – 10:38 AM CEST)

Where: Room 251

Presenter: Tamara Ivanenko

OA63-697-18 The Stigma-Free Healthcare Facility Initiative as a tool for patient-centered TB cure and care advancement

Session: OA63 Perspective in person-centered care

When: Saturday, November 18; 10:15 – 11:45 AM CEST (specifically 10:38 – 10:47 AM CEST)

Where: Room 242A

Presenter: Yurii Subbotin

OA61-685-18 Sustained capacity building for active monitoring the safety of new tuberculosis (TB) medicines in Kazakhstan

Session: OA61 Health education and capacity building

When: Saturday, November 18; 10:15 – 11:45 AM CEST (specifically 11:14 – 11:23 AM CEST)

Where: Room 252AB

Presenter: Shakhimurat Ismailov

Workshops

WS-06 A holistic approach to planning for a digital adherence technology intervention

Presentation: Utilization of Adherence Data

When: Tuesday, November 14; 8:00 – 11:00 AM CEST (specifically 8:00 AM CEST)

Where: Room 243

Presenter: Aleksey Bogdanov

WS-03 Introduction and scale up of stool-based testing – sharing country results and practical lesson learned

Presentation: Enhancing clinical diagnostic capacity for TB in children and adolescent – sharing of country experience

When: Tuesday, November 14; 14:30 – 17:30 PM EST (specifically 16:15 – 16:55 PM CEST)

Where: Room 252AB

Presenter: Gunta Dravniece

Poster presentations

EP06-1047-15 COVID-19 clinical management protocols in India: Evolution of national and sub-national guidelines and innovations

Session: EP06 COVID-19: Are we done yet?

When: Wednesday, November 15; 14:00 – 14:06 PM CEST

Where: Salle Maillot 2

Presenter: Amanda Scott

Summary: We documented the evolution of COVID-19 treatment protocols by the national and sub-national/state governments in India and to what extent the local/global evidence was used. As public health is primarily handled by the state governments in India, we documented how state-level innovations informed national policies and were scaled up.

EP23-1192-17 Systematic TB screening among key TB risk groups at the primary healthcare level in four regions of Ukraine

Session: EP23 Different pathways for accessing services

When: Friday, November 17; 14:00 – 14:06 PM CEST

Where: Salle Maillot 3

Presenter: Tetiana Gaborets

Summary: The USAID-funded Support TB Control Efforts in Ukraine (STBCEU) project has initiated systematic TB screening among key TB risk groups in primary health care. Differentiated screening using chest radiography, molecular rapid diagnostic tests, and C-reactive protein resulted in improved TB active case-finding and access to person-centered TB services and treatment.