Head of the Laboratory of Molecular Epidemiology and Evolutionary Genetics of the Institute Dr Igor Mokrousov and Dr Anna Vyazovaya, Senior Researcher at the same laboratory, took part in the 50th World Conference on Lung Health. The annual conference of the International Union against Tuberculosis and Pulmonary Diseases was held in Hyderabad, India from 30 October to 2 November 2019. It was attended by more than 4,000 participants, and included 60 sessions, 25 symposia, 17 short talks sessions, 16 sections of electronic posters and 41 thematic sections of poster presentations. At the opening meeting, the conference participants were welcomed by the Vice President of India, Minister of Health of India, Telangana State authorities.
Dr. Mokrousov made an oral presentation “Molecular basis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis resistance to new drugs acquired during treatment of MDR/XDR-TB patients” and co-chaired the session “Genotyping: state of the art”. Dr Vyazovaya presented a poster “Prevalence and drug resistance of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Beijing genotype in northwestern Russia”.
Participants of the 50th World Conference on Lung Health discussed a variety of scientific and social issues in plenary sessions and parallel sections. During the conference, an agreement was concluded between Sanofi, Unitaid and the Global Fund to significantly reduce the price of rifapentin, a critical drug for the prevention of tuberculosis. Trial results for a new TB vaccine known as M72/AS01E, developed by GlaxoSmithKline, were also announced. A satellite pre-conference TBScience 2019 was entirely devoted to basic and translational studies of tuberculosis. Tobacco control was one of the pressing issues addressed at the conference at a special session.
The 51st World Conference on Lung Health will be organized in Sevilla, Spain, on October 21–24, 2020.
Note. The International Union against Tuberculosis and Pulmonary Diseases was created in 1920 and is the largest and most respected organization in this field, working closely with WHO, in particular, in establishing fundamental common principles for the diagnosis, control and treatment of tuberculosis and mycobacteriosis.
Website of the Union: https://www.theunion.org/
Website of the conference: https://hyderabad.worldlunghealth.org/
URL of the abstract book (PDF): https://hyderabad.worldlunghealth.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/20191101_UNION2019_Abstracts_Final.pdf
