Post-graduate Courses
Post-graduate Course 1:
An introduction to TB modelling
Date: Tuesday, 12 November 2024
Time: 10:30 – 13:30; 15:00 – 18:00 WITA (Central Indonesia Time)
This post-graduate course is designed for individuals interested in modelling TB and the impact of TB care and prevention programmes. It will introduce participants to the basic structure, assumptions, principles, and concepts of TB modelling, including key aspects of the natural history of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and the impact and cost-effectiveness of TB care and prevention programmes. Participants will gain hands-on experience of using a TB model and how to appraise TB modelling papers. The role of modelling in policy and decision-making will be highlighted and participants will be informed of the resources available from the TB Modelling and Analysis Consortium (www.tb-mac.org)
Session organiser: London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Chairs: Dr Sandip Mandal (Indian Council of Medical Research) and Dr Katherine Horton (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine)
Coordinators: Finn McQuaid (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine)
Target audience: TB & HIV researchers, Heads of National TB Programmes, Clinicians, Decision-makers, Epidemiologists
Price: 200€. Please book your seat during your registration process. If you have registered for the conference, log in to your registration account to book this session.
Register here: conf2024.theunion.org/registration
Post-graduate Course 2:
Shifting perspectives: Strategies for scaling up the BPaLM regimen
Date: Tuesday, 12 November 2024
Time: 10:30 – 13:30 WITA (Central Indonesia Time)
The postgraduate course aims to provide participants with theoretical knowledge and practical strategies for managing drug-resistant TB, including the implementation of a BPaLM regimen for the treatment of drug-resistant TB (DR-TB) patients.
Through a series of presentations by experts in the field, participants will gain an in-depth understanding of the WHO recommendations for DR-TB treatment, rationale for regimen selection, regimen composition, patient characteristics, treatment monitoring, adverse event management, and patient support models.
The specific objectives include:
- Understand the rationale and evidence of the WHO recommendations on DR-TB treatment.
- Learn the criteria for selecting an appropriate DR-TB treatment regimen, including the advantages of the BPaLM regimen.
- Understand patient eligibility criteria, composition, and implementation considerations for BPaLM regimen.
- Develop proficiency in monitoring treatment progress and identifying adverse events.
- Explore various patient support and care models, using real-life examples, designed to facilitate the successful implementation of the BPaLM regimen.
This course will bring together speakers from the UNION, WHO’s Global Tuberculosis Programme, and national TB programs. At the end of this course, participants will have acquired knowledge and practical know-how to improve DR-TB management and facilitate the adoption of more effective treatment regimens, ultimately contributing to better outcomes for patients with DR-TB.
Session organiser: World Health Organization (WHO) HQ
Chairs: Dr Fuad Mirzayev (Global TB Programme, WHO-HQ) and Dr Ignacio Monedero-Recuero (Independent consultant / The Union TB department)
Coordinators: Medea Gegia (WHO HQ) and Linh Nguyen (WHO HQ)
Target audience: Clinicians, NTP managers, Policy makers, independent consultants, Students
Price: There is no charge for this course as it is sponsored by the organiser. Note that booking your seat is mandatory. Please book your seat during your registration process. If you have registered for the conference, log in to your registration account to book this session.
Register here: conf2024.theunion.org/registration
Post-graduate Course 3:
Therapeutic drug monitoring; Roadmap to person centred drug dosing in the community
Date: Tuesday, 12 November 2024
Time: 10:30 to 13:30 WITA (Central Indonesia Time)
Programmatic treatment is the corner stone of TB treatment as it provides evidence treatment feasible in high burdened settings. Despite the success of programmatic treatment patients experience significant side effects, slow response to treatment or acquire drug resistance. This session will provide a roadmap from basic understanding of the relationship between drug dose – exposure and effect, which identify patients who are at risk for suboptimal treatment, present technology to measure drug concentrations without invasive blood collection, how to resolve implementation challenges of personalised treatment strategies within a TB program and outlook for next 5 years. Attendees will acquire skills and knowledge during the course to identify opportunities in their local setting.
Session organiser: University of Sydney
Chairs: Dr Simon Tiberi (The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University) and Prof Heda Melinda Nataprawira (Pediatric Respirology, Department of Child Health, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Padjadjaran, Hasan Sadikin Hospital, Bandung, Indonesia)
Coordinators: Jan-Willem Alffenaar (University of Sydney)
Target audience: Clinicians, pharmacists, public health, policy makers, researchers
Price: 75€. Please book your seat during your registration process. If you have registered for the conference, log in to your registration account to book this session.
Register here: conf2024.theunion.org/registration
Post-graduate Course 4:
Planning and implementing social protection programmes for people affected by TB: An introduction
Date: Tuesday, 12 November 2024
Time: 10:30 – 13:30; 15:00 – 18:00 WITA (Central Indonesia Time)
Social protection is a crucial component of the End TB strategy and a critical area of investment to effectively respond to the social determinants of TB and ultimately ending the TB epidemic. This has been strongly acknowledged during the 2023 UN General Assembly High Level Meeting on TB where member states agreed on a new target: by 2027 all people with TB will have to have access to a comprehensive package of health and social benefits. Improving countries’ ‘know-how’ is therefore essential to ensure that social protection is effectively included in their programmatic response to TB.
In 2024, WHO released the first Guidance on social protection for people affected by TB to support countries in the planning and implementation of social protection programmes for people affected by TB.
This course builds upon the content of this guidance and aims to promote its uptake by providing participants with an introduction to:
- The key concepts and definitions used in social protection and the role of social protection in the context of the End TB strategy.
- A series of generic protocols and concrete examples for the planning, implementation and evaluation of social protection programmes for people affected by TB.
- A preliminary list of approaches for the monitoring of the new 2023 United Nation General Assembly high-level meeting target.
- Models of multisectoral collaboration between social protection, TB programmes, and other services.
By the end of the course, participants are expected to have a more solid theoretical and practical understanding of how to effectively implement, monitor, and evaluate social protection programmes for people affected by TB.
Session organiser: Global Tuberculosis Programme – World Health Organization (WHO)
Chairs: Tauhid Islam (Global Tuberculosis Programme – WHO) and Salla Atkins (Tampere University, Finland)
Coordinators: Delia Boccia (Global Tuberculosis Programme – WHO) and Farai Mavhunga (Global Tuberculosis Programme – WHO)
Target audience: National TB programme managers, Staff from ministries of health, Consultants, Researchers, Staff from technical agencies
Price: There is no charge for this course as it is sponsored by the organiser. Please book your seat during your registration process. If you have registered for the conference, log in to your registration account to book this session.
Register here: conf2024.theunion.org/registration
Post-graduate Course 5:
Updates on the latest TB guidance from the World Health Organization: Translating research evidence into policy and practice to end TB
Date: Tuesday, 12 November 2024
Time: 10:30 – 13:30; 15:00 – 18:00 WITA (Central Indonesia Time)
The objectives of this post-graduate course are to provide recent updates on the development, adaptation, and implementation of the WHO evidence-based recommendations on the prevention, screening, diagnosis, treatment, and care of tuberculosis. The process of the guidelines’ development will be also shared.
Session organiser: Global Tuberculosis Programme – World Health Organization (WHO)
Chairs: Dr Matteo Zignol (Global Tuberculosis Programme – WHO) and Dr Tiffany Tiara Pakasi (Directorate General of Disease Prevention and Control, Ministry of health of the Republic of Indonesia)
Coordinators: Linh Nguyen (Global Tuberculosis Programme – WHO) and Fuad Mirzayev (Global Tuberculosis Programme- WHO)
Target audience: Physicians, nurses, NTP managers, public health professionals, policymakers
Price: There is no charge for this course as it is sponsored by the organiser. Note that booking your seat is mandatory. Please book your seat during your registration process. If you have registered for the conference, log in to your registration account to book this session.
Register here: conf2024.theunion.org/registration
Post-graduate Course 6:
The power of advocacy in advancing global health
Date: Tuesday, 12 November 2024
Time: 15:00 to 18:00 WITA (Central Indonesia Time)
Advocacy has a crucial role to play in shaping priorities and policies in global health and mobilizing resources, yet figuring out how to get started in advocacy can be daunting. Through a combination of lectures, interactive activities such as Q&A, and case studies, participants will leave this course inspired by the potential of advocacy for positive change and confident in their ability to incorporate it into their own work. This course will provide tangible skills that participants can apply to advance global health priorities.
Expected outputs/outcomes:
- To foster a nuanced understanding of advocacy, decision-making processes, and translating evidence-based knowledge into policy action in global health.
- To equip participants with the ability to develop a step-by-step advocacy strategy – from developing an “ask” to identifying appropriate targets, tactics and allies, and measuring impact.
- To explore and share different strategies, tactics, challenges and barriers to influence decision making in global health.
- To encourage participants to apply advocacy using an anti-oppression and equity lens to their areas of work.
Focusing on both the theory and practical steps behind effective advocacy, this post-graduate course is relevant for global audiences including those brand-new to advocacy or those who want to build on existing skills. Attendees of the Union Conference, including researchers, clinicians, civil society, and people with lived experience, will benefit from this course by learning how to translate their knowledge into action to affect positive change. The content of the post-graduate course will center on the quest to end TB. TB is an underprioritized and underfunded disease and thus, making real progress towards ending TB will require strategic global advocacy from across the TB landscape and collaboration across all sectors. Through this course, participants will gain valuable skills while contributing to the global movement to end TB.
Coordinators: Madison Featherstone (Ending the Epidemics, ACTION Global Health Advocacy Partnership) and Leigh Raithby (Results Canada, a member of the ACTION Global Health Advocacy Partnership)
Target audience: TB advocates, civil society, TB-affected communities, researcher
Price: 150€. Please book your seat during your registration process. If you have registered for the conference, log in to your registration account to book this session.
Register here: conf2024.theunion.org/registration
Workshops
Workshop 1:
The role of advancing molecular technologies in BPaLM expansion and clinical management of people with TB: Are we ready?
Date: Tuesday, 12 November 2024
Time: 15:00 – 18:00 WITA (Central Indonesia Time)
This workshop explores the role of the evolving drug susceptibility testing landscape in managing drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) in the era of BPaLM expansion. State-of-the-art international implementation of the BPaLM treatment regimen will be presented with a review of the essential, underlying culture-based, and molecular technologies used for detecting and surveilling BPaLM resistance. The workshop will also cover how test results may be best interpreted to aid clinicians in managing patients failing BPaLM or facing complex resistance patterns. Finally, the discussants will review how using advanced molecular testing technologies across a diverse range of healthcare settings can supplement other clinical and public health measures to minimize the transmission of DR-TB, which is fundamental.
Session organisers: Global TB Programme – World Health Organization (WHO)
Chairs: Prof Xiaolin Wei (University of Toronto) and Dr Patricia Hall-Eidson (US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
Coordinators: Medea Gegia (Global TB programme, WHO) and Charlie Nathanson (Global TB programme, WHO)
Target audience: NTP managers, Laboratory specialists, Clinicians
Price: Free. Note that booking your seat is mandatory. Please book your seat during your registration process. If you have registered for the conference, log in to your registration account to book this session.
Register here: conf2024.theunion.org/registration
Workshop 2:
Using TB active case-finding data to estimate local TB burden
Date: Tuesday, 12 November 2024
Time: 10:30 to 13:30 WITA (Central Indonesia Time)
Active case-finding (ACF) and facility-based intensified case-finding (ICF) for tuberculosis (TB) are conducted routinely to expand the reach of TB services to people with TB who otherwise might have a delayed diagnosed. These data are usually monitored during implementation but often go unused in the months and years following. This might be a missed opportunity to reflect on how the ACF cascade indicators relate to local TB burden. The workshop format will consist of presenters sharing their ACF experiences and case-finding results, which are followed by exercises to extrapolate these results to the larger community. In the exercises, participants will be expected to work in groups to discuss the assumptions which are then used to estimate a range of possible TB prevalence estimates for the community/larger administrative area. Assumptions may include the degree to which activities have been targeted to certain risk populations; the sensitivity and specificity of the screening algorithm to classify someone as being presumptive for TB; the effect of quality of the sputum specimen and lab test; pre-screening community mobilization efforts affecting ACF participants’ representation of the community; and other socioeconomic and epidemiological risk factors and data. The final presentation and exercise will focus on how participants can make use of their estimates for further ACF planning or expanding outreach services to high-risk populations in areas with low access to TB services. The objective of this workshop is for participants to brainstorm various methods for estimating community TB burden, while using ACF data and additional TB risk factors, and while considering the limitations of extrapolating ACF results to the wider community. This will be done during the exercises based off of different ACF settings, including mobile vans equipped with CAD-supported digital chest x-ray and GeneXpert or door-to-door screening in rural areas with spot sputum collection.
Session sponsors: KIT Royal Tropical Institute
Chairs: Dr Nimalan Arinaminpathy (WHO TB Monitoring, Evaluation & Strategic Information)
Coordinators: Mirjam Bakker (KIT Royal Tropical Institute) and Christina Mergenthaler (KIT Royal Tropical Institute)
Target audience: TB ACF planners, TB modellers, Subnational TB program planners
Price: Free. Note that booking your seat is mandatory. Please book your seat during your registration process. If you have registered for the conference, log in to your registration account to book this session.
Register here: conf2024.theunion.org/registration
Workshop 3:
Airborne IPC in focus: Implementation of feasible measures for eliminating TB transmission risk and staying prepared for the next pandemic
Date: Tuesday, 12 November 2024
Time: 10:30 – 13:30; 15:00 – 18:00 WITA (Central Indonesia Time)
TB transmission in health care and congregate settings, especially where drug-resistant TB and/or HIV are highly prevalent, continues to drive the TB epidemic. COVID-19 pandemic made prevention of airborne transmission critically important. Despite increasingly available resources for TB and other airborne infections control interventions, lack of updated knowledge and skills makes implementation of effective and sustainable risk reduction programs challenging. The workshop will address theory of airborne transmission, priority and feasibility-based approach to TB IPC and pandemic preparedness program development and implementation. In practical interactive hands-on sessions participants will learn how to plan, introduce, assess and maintain effective and feasible airborne IPC interventions in low and medium resource settings.
Session sponsors: End TB Transmission Initiative – Powering Airborne IPC, working group of Stop TB Partnership
Chairs: Dr Edward Nardell (Harvard Medical School) and Matsie Mphahlele (The Aurum Institute)
Coordinators: Grigory Volchenkov (Independent consultant) and Varvara Vauhkonen (FILHA)
Target audience: IPC officers, Clinicians, Nurses, TB laboratory managers, NTP managers
Price: Free. Note that booking your seat is mandatory. Please book your seat during your registration process. If you have registered for the conference, log in to your registration account to book this session.
Register here: conf2024.theunion.org/registration
Workshop 4:
Sharing experiences and practical lessons in scale-up, introduction and innovation of stool-based testing to diagnose TB, zooming in on Asia
Date: Tuesday, 12 November 2024
Time: 10:30 to 13:30 WITA (Central Indonesia Time)
Presenters in this workshop will share experiences from the early programmatic implementation of stool-based testing with a focus on countries in Asia. The workshop will highlight practical lessons countries have gained with the introduction and scale-up of stool-based Xpert testing. Participants will be introduced to the existing community of practice where countries conducting stool-based testing can exchange challenges and lessons learned. Countries already implementing stool-based testing will actively share practical experiences during planning, introduction, and scale-up of routine stool-based testing with ample time for discussion. Nigeria which has introduced stool in their routine approach and tests large numbers of children and Malawi which commenced the first phase of routine scale-up will share their experience on how to move beyond initial implementation to routine use. Clinicians will share guidance on the role of stool-based testing in the TB diagnostic algorithm, the importance of simultaneously improving clinical TB diagnosis in children, how to increase access to a bacteriological confirmation.
In addition to stool-based Xpert testing, a protocol for using stool with Truenat was developed recently and initial studies conducted on its routine use. These results will be shared to expand stool beyond the Xpert platform. Also, the successful results of using the new recommended targeted next-generation sequencing tool on stool will be discussed. Lastly, we will hear an update on using tongue swabs to diagnose TB in children and whether this is ready for implementation. After the workshop, participants will up to date with the latest information and experience around stool-based testing. After this workshop, participants should have gained the capacity and tools to start introducing stool-based testing or plan scale-up to routine if testing has already been commenced in selected sites.
Session sponsors: USAID Bebas TB project
Chairs: Petra de Haas (KNCV TB plus) and Dr Sayera Banu (Program on Emerging Infections, Infectious Diseases Division, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Diseases Research)
Coordinators: Eveline Klinkenberg (ConnectTB) and Erik Post (MSH)
Target audience: Health care providers, National TB Program officers, Implementers, Laboratory personnel, Policy makers
Price: Free. Note that booking your seat is mandatory. Please book your seat during your registration process. If you have registered for the conference, log in to your registration account to book this session.
Register here: conf2024.theunion.org/registration
Workshop 5:
TB drug regimens development school: Advanced preclinical and translational tools within the public-private ERA4TB consortium hub
Date: Tuesday, 12 November 2024
Time: 10:30 to 13:30 WITA (Central Indonesia Time)
This workshop highlights ERA4TB gained expertise on selecting suitable TB drug candidates for combination therapy and translating preclinical findings to ensure their progression into first-time-in-humans (FTIH) and subsequent clinical development.
These include cutting-edge experimental and Modelling & Simulation (M&S) strategies, together with a collaboration framework with other consortia dedicated to clinical development.
Attendees will engage in practical mock exercises to progress novel molecules within combination therapies. Exercises are designed for interactive participation and discussion of the attendees with speakers and chairs.
RELEVANCE
This workshop targets a fundamental issue, being the development of novel TB regimens, shortening the lab-to-clinic timeline, and highlights the importance of translational tools in accelerating the development of novel TB therapies.
KNOWLEDGE TO BE GAINED
Attendees will learn innovative preclinical strategies and in-silico technologies to apply their translational value for ranking new drugs and combinations for innovative TB therapies progression.
OBJECTIVES
- Showcase pioneering methodologies implemented by ERA4TB for ranking and profiling of TB drug candidates.
- Address how different preclinical methodologies alongside in-silico technologies can inform strategies for optimizing the progression of candidates into clinical development.
- Engage participants in hands-on exercises to develop a novel TB combination therapy.
- Learn the relevance of public-private partnerships for TB drug development.
- Foster collaboration and knowledge exchange among stakeholders in global TB control efforts and public health policies.
Session sponsors: European Regimen Accelerator for Tuberculosis (ERA4TB)
Chairs: Dr Alfonso Mendoza Losana (Departmento de Bioingeniería, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M)) and Prof Oscar Della Pasqua (Bioinformatics and Systems Biology Group, IAC)
Coordinators: Ainhoa Lucía Quintana (Dep. Microbiology. Fac. Medicine. University of Zaragoza) and Diana Angelica Aguilar Ayala (Dep. Microbiology. Fac. Medicine. University of Zaragoza)
Target audience: TB drug regimens developers, pre-clinical investigators, clinical investigators, regulatory and stakeholders, people affected by TB
Price: Free. Note that booking your seat is mandatory. Please book your seat during your registration process. If you have registered for the conference, log in to your registration account to book this session.
Register here: conf2024.theunion.org/registration
Workshop 7:
Building capacity for real-time operational research: Experiences from Asia and Africa
Date: Tuesday, 12 November 2024
Time: 15:00 to 18:00 WITA (Central Indonesia Time)
This workshop is designed to sensitize policy makers, program staff, academia and public health researchers involved in National TB programs about capacity building and relevance of real-time operational research (OR) in generating local and timely evidence for action, using experiences from Asia and Africa.
will consist of four interactive lecture-discussion sessions followed by a final demonstration session of the mobile based data capture tool (EpiCollect5). The first session will cover what real-time OR means, why it is needed and how the “Structured Operational Research and Training IniTiative (SORT IT)” can be used for implementing real-time OR in multiple countries. Following this, three examples of real-time OR will be discussed:
- Real-time surveillance for mitigating the adverse impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on TB/HIV care delivery in Africa;
- Utility of instituting timeliness metrics for programmatic management of TB infection among household contacts in Asia and Africa;
- Feasibility of managing disability, comorbidities and risk determinants at the end of TB treatment in Africa.
The final demonstration session will focus on building skills of the audience in the use of EpiCollect5, a mobile based data capture tool which was used in all the above projects.
Session sponsors: UNICEF, UNDP, World Bank, WHO Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR)
Chairs: Prof Anthony Harries (Centre for Operational Research, International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, Paris, France) and Dr Ya Diul Mukadi (United States Agency for International Development)
Coordinators: Selma Dar Berger (Center for Operational Research, International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease) and Divya Nair (Center for Operational Research, International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease)
Target audience: National and global TB policymakers, National TB program managers, Academia, Public health researchers, Health care workers
Price: Free. Note that booking your seat is mandatory. Please book your seat during your registration process. If you have registered for the conference, log in to your registration account to book this session.
Register here: conf2024.theunion.org/registration
Workshop 8:
Decoding TB drug resistance: A deep dive into the updated WHO TB mutation catalogue
Date: Tuesday, 12 November 2024
Time: 10:30 to 13:30 WITA (Central Indonesia Time)
This workshop aims to equip participants with a comprehensive understanding of the second edition of the WHO TB Mutation Catalogue and its practical application in genotypic drug-susceptibility testing for tuberculosis (TB).
By the end of the session, attendees will understand how the Mutation Catalogue works and will be able to use the catalogue data and tables to understand and interpret the clinical relevance of Mtb mutations detected with sequencing and other molecular diagnostic tools.
Additionally, attendees will be able to:
- Implement the updated WHO Mutation Catalogue in TB diagnostics for developing new diagnostics and interpreting existing molecular diagnostics for more precise drug-resistance detection.
- Enhance their laboratory’s capability in TB genotyping and contribute to the global TB control efforts.
- Develop strategies for integrating genomic data into routine TB diagnostics and treatment decision-making processes.
- Foster collaboration and knowledge exchange within the TB diagnostics community to further refine and update the mutation catalogue
This workshop is a unique opportunity for professionals involved in TB diagnostics and treatment to interact with members of the Expert Advisory Team that developed the WHO Mutation Catalogue. The updated WHO Mutation Catalogue represents a critical reference tool for the diagnosis of drug resistant TB, offering the latest insights and methodologies for identifying drug-resistant strains using sequencing and other molecular diagnostics. By empowering diagnostic laboratory staff, bioinformaticians, and clinicians with the required knowledge and skills to effectively use this catalogue, we can advance more personalized, accurate, and effective TB treatment strategies, ultimately contributing to the global fight against TB.
Session sponsors: FIND
Chairs: Dr Nazir Ismail (WHO) and Dr Timothy Rodwell (FIND)
Coordinators: Anita Suresh (FIND) and Swapna Uplekar (FIND)
Target audience: Clinicians, Diagnostic laboratory staff, Bioinformaticians, Diagnostics developers
Price: Free. Note that booking your seat is mandatory. Please book your seat during your registration process. If you have registered for the conference, log in to your registration account to book this session.
Register here: conf2024.theunion.org/registration