17th Union Africa Region - Conference brief

The 17th Union Africa Region Conference was held in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso from 24-26th June 2009. Over 500 participants from 26 countries attended. The theme of the conference was Lung Health and the strengthening of health systems in Africa.

The conference was opened by His Excellency Blaise Compaore, President of Burkina Faso. Symposia related to TB diagnosis covered “Reinforcing laboratory capacity in the diagnosis of tuberculosis”, including a presentation of Uganda’s microscopy EQA programme, and Tuberculosis control as a means of reinforcing the health systems in Africa (WHO Symposium). A presentation was also given on the UNITAID project for roll out of rapid diagnostics for MDR and XDR-TB (Dr. Jean Iragema, WHO) . Other symposia covered MDR-TB and TB-HIV, the role of nurses and the community in TB control, operational research, and management of childhood lung disease.

In line with the conference theme, FIND and partners presented posters entitled “ From Evidence to Policy and Implementation of New TB Diagnostics” (Joloba M, Albert H, National TB Reference Laboratory, Uganda, and, FIND Uganda) and “Working Together Towards Integration of TB and HIV Laboratories In Ethiopia” (Agonafir M, Narang R, Abebe A, Balasangameshwara VH, Paramasivan CN, Somoskovi A, Roscigno G, Ethiopian Health and Nutrition Research Institute, Ethiopia, FIND, Institute of Medical Sciences, Sevagram, India).