LUNG HEALTH

TUBERCULOSIS

TOBACCO CONTROL

INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME

THE UNION NORTH AMERICA

THE UNION LATIN AMERICA

THE UNION MIDDLE EAST

THE UNION SOUTH EAST ASIA

MARK YOUR CALENDAR

MEMBERSHIP

IJTLD WEB ALERT

NOVEMBER is
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
(COPD)
AWARENESS MONTH

Lear more about
COPD Days

 LUNG HEALTH

Chronic airflow limitation in developing countries: burden and priorities

Respiratory disease has never received priority in relation to its impact on health.

Chronic airflow limitation (due mainly to asthma and COPD) alone affects more than 100 million persons in the world and the majority of them live in developing countries.
International guidelines for management of asthma (GINA) and COPD (GOLD) have been adopted and their cost-effectiveness demonstrated in industrialised countries. As resources are scarce in developing countries, adaptation of these guidelines using only essential drugs is required. To respond to this emerging public health problem in developing countries, The Union has launched an initiative to increase affordability of essential asthma drugs for patients in developing countries termed the “Asthma Drug Facility” (ADF), which could facilitate the care of patients living in these parts of the world.
In developing countries, the objective of chronic respiratory disease prevention and management is to decrease the burden of illness, prevent avoidable deaths, and increase the quality of life of patients. This is achieved by adaptation of international guidelines to the particular context of developing countries. Such efforts have as objectives to reduce tobacco smoking, encourage smoking cessation, improve quality of services by standard case management, promote cost-effective approaches to treatment, enhance access to affordable essential medications and avoid ineffective and costly services. The tobacco industry has increasingly targeted developing countries and tobacco use has increased dramatically in many developing countries during the last two decades. This problem requires firm political action directed to endorsing and implementing the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and, particularly, to increase legislation to reduce tobacco consumption.
International guidelines for management of COPD may be very difficult to implement in low-income countries as they require redirecting existing resources from other priority guidelines.
As resources are not limitless, it remains for governments to choose some interventions over others.
To read the full article, please click here

 TUBERCULOSIS

International Training Course on Tuberculosis for Low and Intermediate Incidence Countries

Application deadline: 15 January 2009

The course is designed for specialists in pulmonology, infectious diseases and tuberculosis who are in expert or public health positions in relation to TB programmes at the national or regional level. The aim of the course is to improve capacity of medical specialists in addressing the changing challenges in TB control primarily in the European region.

20-24 April 2009
Tartu, Estonia
Language: English
Application deadline 15 January 2009

Further information can be found on the website: http://www.filha.fi/in_english/training

  TOBACCO CONTROL

During certain sessions, the audience filled the room, with people standing or even sitting on the floor.
Quoting the Chair of the tobacco control Scientific Section, Dr Javaid Khan: “I have been attending Union conferences for the past decade or so. I must say this year tobacco was high in the agenda at this conference. Also the attendance in these sessions was far better than previous years. All those who helped in organising these sessions need congratulations. I myself came back with lots of new ideas for tobacco control in Pakistan.”

Two excellent workshops were delivered: Fiona Godfrey and Francis Thompson coordinated a workshop on Tobacco and development, which draw in 45 enthusiastic participants to discuss whether tobacco control should be seen as a development issue, best ways to gather political support for tobacco control worldwide, and to explore best ways to find sustainable funding for tobacco control globally. In the Trish Fraser and Lin Yan’s workshop Tobacco-free health care facilities workshop, 35 participants discussed about the barriers, rationale, evidence base and implementation of tobacco-free health care facilities.

At the symposium “Picture paints a thousand words: re-imaging tobacco”, audience of 70 enjoyed presentations where, to name two among many, Trish Cotter (Australia) and Paula Johns (Brazil) introduced the best practices in mass media messaging and health messages in tobacco packaging.
During the session “Combating tobacco in high-burden countries: stories from the front line of the Bloomberg Initiative”, 67 participants heard stories from the grantees from selected countries under the Initiative: India (Monika Arora and Bhavna B Mukhopadhyay), Bangladesh (Saifuddin Ahmed), and Russia (Kirill Danishevsky).
The symposium “Clearing the air: evidence, successes and challenges in smoke-free policies” draw in 66 interested participants to listen and discuss hands-on experiences of speakers, such as Toker Erguder (Turkey) and Paula Johns (Brazil) in planning and implementing smoke free policies.
Business at the Tobacco Control stand in The Union village was brisk, with updated Union tobacco control factsheets in six languages proving popular. Fortune cookies with key messages from the MPOWER report catered to those in need of blood-sugar boost. Pins with The Union symbol and name were very popular - several Board members actively participated in the distribution of these. Videos on key tobacco control issues including tobacco and poverty and MPOWER were screened.

Many thanks to all those whose concerted efforts made the conference a success!

  INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT DEVELOPMENT
  PROGRAMME

The International Management Development
Programme (IMDP): Tobacco Control

Tobacco-related illness has emerged as one of the greatest health epidemics of our time. It is estimated that approximately 70 million people have died due to tobacco use in the past 50 years.

Thanks to the Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use, the International Management Development Programme has expanded its courses to include management training specifically designed for officials working in tobacco control. Since 2007, hundreds of officials working in tobacco control from countries with the highest burden of tobacco use have received training on how to develop and implement plans that educate people on the dangers of tobacco use and combat the tobacco industry’s efforts.
Some of the subjects covered in IMDP management courses for tobacco control are:

• Effective programme management
• Establishing strong networks
• Promoting advocacy
• How to use mass media for tobacco-control programmes
• Smooth financial planning
• Intelligent organisational assessment
• Simple and powerful communications strategies

For more information on management courses for tobacco or tuberculosis control, please visit the International Management Development Programme on the Web at www.union-imdp.org

  THE UNION NORTH AMERICA

The Union North America office opened
6 November 2008 in New York City!

It represents The Union’s first-ever field office in the United States. The Union North America office will be expected to:
- oversee and manage complex national and international assistance and research projects of relevance to the region and globally;
- strengthen ties between The Union and key partners in North America including governments, donors, and technical agencies;
- support the work of other Union offices in the region, Union Regions, national constituent and organisational members, and the work of the scientific sections.

TREAT TB (Technology, Research, Education and Technical Assistance for TB), a recently awarded USAID-funded 5 year research project is the first major project to be managed from The Union North America office in New York.
The following Union staff currently located at The Union North America office are:

Mark Fussell, Director
Director of Special Projects
Email: mfussell@theunion.org
Tel: +1 212 500 5724

Jayson Miller, Marketing Coordinator
Email: jmiller@theunion.org
Tel: +1 212 500 5722

Bruno Bui, Project Administrator
Email: bbui@theunion.org
Tel: +1 212 500 5728

 THE UNION LATIN AMERICA

Towards smoke-free environments

The Union Latin America office has finalized its first Management and Leadership Course.

Participants from leading organisations in Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Uruguay, Guatemala, Paraguay, Honduras and Peru have come to share their experiences in tobacco control and to receive relevant training.
Two more courses will take place in Mexico before the end of the year in issues related to functional competences and management of human resources (November) and finance (December).

Also, The Union has participated in the workshop to elaborate the pictorial warnings that will be introduced next year in tobacco products in Mexico. The Union Latin America office staff has been present in the working meeting for the Secretarial Agreement on Packaging and Labeling under the General Law for Tobacco Control. On-going activities related to this are being developed.
The Union is preparing a case-study on the experience of smoke-free environments in Mexico City. In collaboration with Union staff, Jon Dawson (author of the New York: Smoke-free City) will write a report of one of the most populated cities of the word, that has successfully gone 100% smoke-free. Interviews to key actors in the process of promotion and implementation of this legislation have been done.
Gustavo Sóñora, member of The Union Latin America office, is participating in a national congress in Uruguay on the issue of illicit trade of tobacco.

 THE UNION MIDDLE EAST

 
Capacity building in Middle East

During the month of October, The Union Middle East office in Egypt has conducted a course on Budget and Financial Management.

The course was facilitated by Dr Jose Luis Castro and was attended by 25 participants from a diverse number of organisations in Egypt and Pakistan; Ministries of Health and Finance, NGOs working in Tobacco and TB control, Medical Syndicate, and international organisations (The Framework Alliance for Tobacco Control and World Health Organization representative office in Pakistan). More than 70% of participants considered the course to have provided them with approaches and techniques which are pertinent and applicable to their jobs, and 100% rated it as excellent or good.
This is the 4th management course and the 2nd on Budget and Financial Management which The Union Middle East conducts for this year.

The Union Middle East network in Egypt:
The Union Middle East office has managed to bring in action up to 18 different NGOs in Egypt. Agreeing to work together as one unit with the purpose of ensuring effective implementation of tobacco control policies, The Union Middle East office is currently assisting them in establishing a national coalition on tobacco control in Egypt to be the first of its kind.
Through Union management courses and several technical meetings on tobacco control policies and strategies, 3 NGOs have already redrafted their mission statement to include tobacco control as a priority issue, relating it to health and development.

 THE UNION SOUTH EAST ASIA

New challenges on TB in South East Asia

To address new emerging challenges at the grassroots, policy and the changing nature of the disease itself, more than 45 civil society organisations from across India converged for the first partners meet at the L.R.S. Institute of Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases in New Delhi on 4 November 2008 to discuss the emerging challenges posed by this public health emergency and to discuss how a civil society partnership will support the central and state governments at all levels and amplify voices of communities to the policy makers.
India bears the world’s highest TB burden. Recent reports have identified programmatic challenges that include limited community awareness, sub-optimal community participation and sense of ownership, emerging challenges of TB-HIV co-infection and MDR-TB management requiring accelerated health system response, and limitations in access to quality TB care for the hard to reach, marginalized and vulnerable populations.

The US Governments’ Agency for International Development (USAID) has supported the setting up of a secretariat for the partnership to be hosted by The Union at its office located in Delhi through a World Vision grant.
Representatives from the public, private and the civil societies participated in the daylong meeting. Dr Shaloo Puri of the World Economic Forum in her presentation of engaging the businesses in TB care and control efforts said that “Businesses are well intended and willing to contribute to the TB care and control efforts by offering their management skills, core competencies and existing infrastructure and systems.”
At the end of the meeting, the partners agreed on recommendations and an action plan to work collaboratively to meet the challenges in TB control.

 MARK YOUR CALENDAR

Union Europe Region Conference: 27-30 May 2009
Dubrovnik, Croatia

The 5th Union Europe Region Conference will take place on 27-30 May 2009 in Dubrovnik, Croatia. The Theme is: Bridging East and West: the challenges of respiratory diseases in Europe.
Online abstract submission, registration and accommodation are now accessible via the official site of the conference at www.depol.org/iuatld2009 Please note that the deadline for abstract submission is on 19 January 2009 (authors will be notified the status of their abstracts around 9 February 2009) whereas the deadline for early-bird registration is on 15 February 2009.

Union Africa Region Conference: 24-26 June 2009 in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

The 17th Union Africa Region Conference is scheduled on 24-26 June 2009 in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. The theme selected by the Organising Committee is: Lung Health and the strengthening of health systems in Africa. For any query on this conference, please send a message to ocarolineella@yahoo.fr Thank you for disseminating this announcement.

Union World Conference 2009: 3-7 December 2009
in Cancún, Mexico

The Cancún Convention Center will host the 40th Union World Conference on Lung Health to be held on 3-7 December 2009 in Cancún, Mexico. The theme to be addressed will be: Poverty and Lung Health. For any query related to this conference please send a message to cancun2009@theunion.org

Union World Conference 2008

The Organising Committee of the 39th Union World Conference on Lung Health held in October 2008 would like to thank all the delegates for making this event such a success. The Union was happy to greet 2600 participants from 125 countries from around the world.

For communications matters, please feel free to contact our communications unit at communications@theunion.org

 MEMBERSHIP

JOIN THE UNION - OR RENEW NOW!

“Becoming a Union Member is being instrumental to support efforts and continue launching new resources and programmes in the global fight against tuberculosis and lung disease” Scott Mc Donald, Executive Director of the British Columbia Lung Association.

Now is the time to join or renew your Union membership. We hope you will continue to support The Union's 88-year tradition of public health activism as we work toward global targets to stop TB. The 20-euro individual Union membership for people from low-income countries has become a very popular option. It includes an online-only subscription to the International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease as well as all other member benefits.

Visit http://membership.worldlunghealth.org to see a description of the membership categories, benefits and fees. Clicking on « Membership online » will take you to the new, interactive membership form for renewals and new memberships. If you are already a member, to ensure that you receive the best service from The Union, please use your existing membership number. If you have forgotten your membership number, please contact us at: membership@theunion.org , and we will e-mail it to you as soon as possible.

   IJTLD WEB ALERT
   Volume 12 - N°11, November 2008

Record 1.
TI: The Stop TB Partnership and the role of The Union [Editorial]
AU: Espinal, Marcos A.
URL: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/iuatld/ijtld/2008/00000012/00000011/art00001

Record 2.
TI: Tuberculosis State of the Art series [Editorial]
AU: Rusen, I.D.
URL: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/iuatld/ijtld/2008/00000012/00000011/art00002

Record 3.
TI: World COPD Day 2008: where have we been and where are we headed? [Editorial]
AU: Mannino, David M.
URL: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/iuatld/ijtld/2008/00000012/00000011/art00003

Record 4.
TI: The diagnosis and misdiagnosis of tuberculosis [State of the art series. Tuberculosis. Edited by I. D. Rusen. Number 1 in the series]
AU: Davies, P.D.O.; Pai, M.
URL: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/iuatld/ijtld/2008/00000012/00000011/art00004

Record 5.
TI: Adherence to treatment for latent tuberculosis infection: systematic review of studies in the US and Canada [Review article]
AU: Hirsch-Moverman, Y.; Daftary, A.; Franks, J.; Colson, P.W.
URL: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/iuatld/ijtld/2008/00000012/00000011/art00005

Record 6.
TI: How to identify tuberculosis cases in a prevalence survey [Educational series: prevalence surveys. Serialised guidelines. Assessing tuberculosis prevalence through population-based surveys. Number 3 in the series]
AU: van der Werf, M.J.; Enarson, D.A.; Borgdorff, M.W.
URL: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/iuatld/ijtld/2008/00000012/00000011/art00006

Record 7.
TI: Knowledge, attitudes and risk perceptions about tuberculosis: US National Health Interview Survey
AU: Marks, S.M.; DeLuca, N.; Walton, W.
URL: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/iuatld/ijtld/2008/00000012/00000011/art00007

Record 8.
TI: Health seeking and knowledge about tuberculosis among persons with pulmonary symptoms and tuberculosis cases in Bangalore slums
AU: Suganthi, P.; Chadha, V.K.; Ahmed, J.; Umadevi, G.; Kumar, P.; Srivastava, R.; Magesh, V.; Gupta, J.; Sharda, M.A.
URL: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/iuatld/ijtld/2008/00000012/00000011/art00008

Record 9.
TI: Public-private mix for control of tuberculosis and TB-HIV in Nairobi, Kenya: outcomes, opportunities and obstacles
AU: Chakaya, J.; Uplekar, M.; Mansoer, J.; Kutwa, A.; Karanja, G.; Ombeka, V.; Muthama, D.; Kimuu, P.; Odhiambo, J.; Njiru, H.; Kibuga, D.; Sitienei, J.
URL: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/iuatld/ijtld/2008/00000012/00000011/art00009

Record 10.
TI: Induced sputum improves the diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis in hospitalized patients in Gaborone, Botswana
AU: Morse, M.; Kessler, J.; Albrecht, S.; Kim, R.; Thakur, R.; Nthobatsang, R.; Radisowa, K.; Maunatlala, C.; Yang, W.; MacGregor, R.R.; Friedman, H.
URL: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/iuatld/ijtld/2008/00000012/00000011/art00010

Record 11.
TI: Interferon-gamma release assays during follow-up of tuberculin skin test-positive contactsAU: Franken, W.P.J.; Arend, S.M.; Thijsen, S.F.T.; Bouwman, J.J.M.; Koster, B.F.P.J.; van Dissel, J.T.; Bossink, A.W.J.
URL: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/iuatld/ijtld/2008/00000012/00000011/art00011

Record 12.
TI: Second-line drug resistance in multidrug-resistant tuberculosis cases of various origins in the Netherlands
AU: van Ingen, J.; Boeree, M.J.; Wright, A.; van der Laan, T.; Dekhuijzen, P.N.R.; van Soolingen, D.
URL: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/iuatld/ijtld/2008/00000012/00000011/art00012

Record 13.
TI: Relationship between the isoniazid-resistant mutation katGS315T and the prevalence of MDR-/XDR-TB in Osaka, Japan
AU: Ano, H.; Matsumoto, T.; Suetake, T.; Nagai, T.; Tamura, Y.; Takamatsu, I.; Iwasaki, T.; Matsuoka, H.; Sasada, S.; Tetsumoto, S.; Tsuyuguchi, I.; Kusunoki, Y.; Takashima, T.
URL: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/iuatld/ijtld/2008/00000012/00000011/art00013

Record 14.
TI: Comparison of MAS-PCR and GenoType MTBDR assay for the detection of rifampicin-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis
AU: Tho, D.Q.; Ha, D.T.M.; Duy, P.M.; Lan, N.T.N.; Hoa, D.V.; Chau, N.V.V.; Farrar, J.; Caws, M.
URL: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/iuatld/ijtld/2008/00000012/00000011/art00014

Record 15.
TI: Nested polymerase chain reaction in the diagnosis of cervical tuberculous lymphadenitis in Mexican children
AU: Portillo-Gomez, L.; Murillo-Neri, M.V.; Gaitan-Mesa, J.; Sosa-Iglesias, E.G.
URL: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/iuatld/ijtld/2008/00000012/00000011/art00015

Record 16.
TI: Value of chest radiography in predicting treatment response in children aged 359 months with severe pneumonia
AU: Patel, A.; Mamtani, M.; Hibberd, P.L.; Tuan, T.A.; Jeena, P.; Chisaka, N.; Hassan, M.; Maulen-Radovan, I.; Thea, D.M.; Qazi, S.; Kulkarni, H.
URL: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/iuatld/ijtld/2008/00000012/00000011/art00016

Record 17.
TI: Inequalities in smoking profiles in Morocco: the role of educational level
AU: El Rhazi, K.; Nejjari, C.; Berraho, M.; Serhier, Z.; Tachfouti, N.; El Fakir, S.; Benjelloun, M.; Slama, K.
URL: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/iuatld/ijtld/2008/00000012/00000011/art00017

Record 18.
TI: PPM: public-private or private-public mix? The case of Ujjain District, India [Short communication]
AU: De Costa, A.; Kazmi, T.; Lonnroth, K.; Uplekar, M.; Diwan, V.K.
URL: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/iuatld/ijtld/2008/00000012/00000011/art00018

Record 19.
TI: Female-male differences at various clinical steps of tuberculosis management in rural Bangladesh [Short communication]
AU: Karim, F.; Ahmed, F.; Begum, I.; Johansson, E.; Diwan, V.K.
URL: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/iuatld/ijtld/2008/00000012/00000011/art00019

Record 20.
TI: Laboratory features for presumptive diagnosis of disseminated tuberculosis in HIV-infected patients [Short communication]
AU: dos Santos, R.P.; Scheid, K.L.; Goldani, L.Z.
URL: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/iuatld/ijtld/2008/00000012/00000011/art00020

Record 21.
TI: Direct application of the PCR restriction analysis method for identifying NTM species in AFB smear-positive respiratory specimens [Short communication]
AU: Kim, S.; Park, E.M.; Kwon, O.J.; Lee, J.H.; Ki, C-S.; Lee, N.Y.; Koh, W-J.
URL: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/iuatld/ijtld/2008/00000012/00000011/art00021