FIND was an active participant at the 37th Union World Conference on Lung Health, which took place from 31 October to 4 November 2006 at the Palais des Congrès in Paris, France.

Some 2,000 visitors from all over the world attended the conference whose theme was “Strengthening human resources for better lung health”. While the event provided a unique opportunity to highlight the key role health workers play in providing efficient health care it also permitted health workers and doctors, patients, managers and representatives of various research institutes, organizations, national programmes and technical agencies to address pressing and important challenges. These include the consequences of a critical shortage of human resources in low-income countries, the need for increased funding for health system infrastructures, supplies, drugs and the need for new diagnostics particularly for tuberculosis.

The Union’s conference also enabled delegates to attend various sessions, workshops and lectures whose topics ranged from antiretroviral treatment, tobacco control, the role of laboratory in achieving the Millennium Development Goals, TB/HIV Diagnostics, clinical trials and ethical issues in high-burden countries, migrants with TB to human resources for child lung health.

Some key events and FIND meetings during the conference included:

• The Stop TB Partnership symposium: From DOTS to STOP TB Strategy
• A presentation on re-tooling by FIND Senior Policy & Implementation Officer, Dr. Vinand Nantulya, during a session dedicated to the Stop TB Partnership Working Groups
• A special guest lecture on the global responsibilities in investing in the health workforce for sustainable health systems
• A FIND-BD meeting on MGIT demonstration projects chaired by FIND Head of Product Evaluation Dr. Richard O’Brien
• The STOP TB Working Group annual meeting on new diagnostics and a poster session hosted by FIND and WHO/TDR (agenda and poster title)
• A meeting on integrating an automated molecular test system for TB into the laboratory routine
• A side meeting on XDR-TB with Médecins Sans Frontières during which FIND Chief Scientific Officer, Dr. Mark Perkins, was a panelist in the session on new TB drug development;
• A symposium on “The role of the laboratory in achieving the Millennium Development Goals”, chaired by FIND CEO Dr. Giorgio Roscigno
• A symposium on “Susceptibility testing against second-line anti-tuberculosis drugs for surveillance and MDR-TB treatment”, chaired by FIND Project Manager, TB Laboratory Aspects, C. N. Paramasivan.

View pictures

Media events

In light of the recent outbreak of XDR-TB, a special press conference was held on 31 October 2006 at the Centre d’Accueil de la Presse Etrangère in Paris.

Speakers were:

• Dr Jorge Sampaio, UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy to STOP TB
• Dr Mario Raviglione, Director, Stop TB Department, WHO
• Dr Kevin De Cock, Director HIV/AIDS Department, WHO
• Dr Nils Billo, Executive Director of The Union
• Mr Jérôme Pasquier, Deputy General Director, Directorate general for international co-operation and development/UNITAID

WHO Director of the Stop TB Department, Dr. Mario Raviglione, and other TB and HIV leaders notably stressed that US$ 95 million is urgently needed from government and funding agencies to stop the spread of XDR-TB by the year 2007. From this amount, at least US$ 5 million is required for the development of rapid TB diagnostic tests.

FIND’s mission to develop rapid, new and innovative diagnostics was highlighted several times by speakers during the press conference. FIND CEO, Dr. Giorgio Roscigno, was invited to describe FIND’s mission and activities, and how replacing a more than 100 years old tool, the microscope, with newer ones that are affordable in developing countries and more user-friendly could significantly help combat the epidemic.

The Stop TB Department will collaborate with FIND to demonstrate diagnostic TB test equipment and methodology to enable rapid culture and drug susceptibility testing. This should reduce the time required to confirm a diagnosis of TB drug resistance from 3 months to just a few days.

To access the related press release, please click here.

View pictures

Press point

Journalists also had an opportunity to meet several experts during a press point held at the Palais des Congrès on 2 November 2006.

FIND CEO, Dr. Giorgio Roscigno and FIND Chief Scientific Officer, Dr. Mark Perkins, attended and answered questions on diagnostics.

FIND’s booth

For the first time since its inauguration in 2003, FIND had a booth during the conference. It was a great success. FIND representatives truly enjoyed meeting and sharing more about FIND’s work with everyone.

Various documents such as FIND brochures, newsletters and press releases were made available to conference participants and visitors. Information on projects being developed in collaboration with some of FIND’s partners – BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company), Biotec Laboratories Ltd, Cepheid, EIKEN and Hain Lifesciences – was also provided. This included:
 

• MGIT Procedure manuals (BD);
• The FASTPlaque-Response, a new diagnostic test for multidrug-resistant TB that provides results in just two days (Biotec);
• A GeneXpert Unit, a system, which as the world's first, enables users to make genetic detection possible from unprepared samples in just minutes instead of several hours;
• A video presentation and brochure describing the TB LAMP test (Loop-mediated Amplification Isothermal) technology (Eiken);
• The Hain GenoType® MTBDR test, which provides results predicting resistance to rifampicin and isoniazid in just a few hours.

View pictures

A special thanks to:

• Jewel Thomas, Communications and Advocacy Coordinator,
• Beatrice Gordis, Communications Officer,
• and Corey Pray, Project Management Document Controller, who contributed to the smooth operation of FIND’s booth during the conference.

Website of 37th Conference on Lung Health