Tackling TB in South Africa: Invitation to attend TAC, MSF, SECTION27 and OXFAM meeting on TB

The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), SECTION27 and Oxfam will host a meeting on the morning of the launch of the 3rd SA TB Conference. The meeting will bring together community members, patients, activists, health care workers and government. The aim of the meeting is to examine challenges in reducing new cases of, and treating, tuberculosis (TB) and drug resistant (DR) TB.

The first session will look at cost drivers of TB medicines and diagnostics that often act as barriers to access. We will examine the need for new and better medicines to treat DR-TB – and look at some of the new TB medicines in the development pipeline.

The second session will examine recent advances in decentralising DR TB treatment in South Africa. It will include an update on the national implementation of decentralized treatment. We will also hear from a physician providing and a patient receiving decentralised DR TB treatment.

Lastly, we will examine an important mathematical model recently published in the South African Medical Journal. The model exposed the high risk of contracting TB in South Africa’s prisons. We will also discuss a related court case.

The meeting will start at 9:00 am and conclude at 2:00 pm on 12 June 2012. It will be held in the International Convention Centre (ICC) in Durban (the same venue as the 3rd SA TB Conference). Following the meeting, lunch will be provided.

For those registered to attend, the TB Conference will be launched at the ICC at 4pm on the same day.

Please RSVP to lieve.vanleeuw@tac.org.za