Diagnostic tools, Operational challenges and need for new drugs: MSF’s participation in Cape Town TB conference.

In November 2007, Cape Town hosted the biggest annual meeting on TB - the Union World Conference on Lung Health of the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease. For the first time in 38 years, the conference was held in the African continent, at the epicentre of both the HIV and TB pandemics. Last year’s conference drew attention to the challenges of treating TB in a high-HIV prevalence setting and dealing with drug-resistant forms of the disease.

In the face of these challenges, the inadequacies of present diagnostic tools have become even more glaring. To discuss how to improve current practices with existing diagnostic tools and to explore the implementation of emerging technologies and applications, MSF organised a scientific symposium in Cape Town prior to the conference. Participants were invited to analyse the roadblocks blocking the development and implementation of improved TB/MDR-TB testing and contribute to developing strategies for challenging stakeholders to overcome these obstacles and put an end to the global neglect of these issues. Abstracts from the symposium are available here.

© Alessandra Vilas Boas/MSF

On the operational front, MSF organised a Satellite meeting to discuss potential responses to today’s challenges in the TB field in Southern Africa, including decentralised, community-based drug-resistant TB management. Click here to see the agenda of the meeting.

Better diagnostic tools and appropriate care are not enough to deal with the TB crisis. Patients suffering from drug-resistant TB need more effective medicines. At the conference, MSF joined international experts in calling for new drug trials that could speed up the delivery of newer and better medicines for patients suffering from resistant forms of TB. The proposed trials were outlined in a scientific paper published by the Public Library of Science, PloS, to coincide with the conference. To read the paper, click here.

Finally, MSF also took the opportunity to raise awareness about the struggle patients and health workers are left with to fight TB with old tools. At the Cape Town Waterfront, with the help of a Marimba band and a drama group, volunteer health educators distributed postcards with stories of MSF patients and health workers in South Africa, Lesotho and Kenya. The public had the opportunity to learn more about TB and to write back their concerns or messages of support to the patients and health workers. More than 200 postcards were collected and sent back to Monica, Busi, Mosala, Joseph and Pheelo. Click on the postcards below to read the messages:

© Alessandra Vilas Boas/MSF