Supporting progress towards the post-2015 targets and regional tuberculosis elimination: a statement of intent from the third meeting of the Asian TB Experts Community
Authors: Toru Mori, Erlina Burhan
Journal: European Respiratory Journal (2015)

The World Health Organization (WHO) is challenging all countries, both high- and low-incidence, to dramatically intensify efforts to meet bold new goals of reducing global tuberculosis (TB) deaths by 95% and the incidence by 90% (<10 cases per 100 000 population) by 2035 [1]. This radical strategic change came from the recognition that the current strategy of passive case finding and directly observed therapy (DOT) is not sufficiently curbing the incidence of TB. The new strategy calls for a synergy of interventions to enable early case detection, systematic screening and prevention of TB in contacts (adults and children) and high-risk groups, such as people living with HIV or other immune depressing conditions, people with diabetes, patients receiving dialysis, patients preparing for organ or haematological transplantation, patients with silicosis, prisoners, healthcare workers, homeless individuals, illicit drug users and individuals in communal settings. At the end of 2014, the WHO released the first guidelines on the management of latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI). The guidelines provide evidence based guidance on practices for testing, treating and managing LTBI in infected individuals with the highest likelihood of progression to active disease [2]. Although primarily aimed at high-income or upper middle-income countries, with an estimated TB incidence rate of <100 per 100 000 population, they represent an unprecedented gear change in the scaling up of TB prevention as a component of TB control programmes [2]. In the first concerted Asian reaction to the post-2015 strategy the significance of TB screening was recognised <http://ow.ly/LnWPW> The participants in the third meeting of the Asian TB Experts Community were as follows. Anis Karuniawati: Dept of Pulmonology and Respiratory Medicine, Persahabatan Hospital Jakarta, Faculty of Medicine, University of Indonesia, Jakarta, Indonesia; Arisu Kamada: Hokkaido Medical Center, Japan; Camilo Roa: Fellow Philippine College of Chest Physicians, Philippines; Chareon Chuchottaworn: Central Chest Institute of Health, Dept of Medical Services, Ministry of Public Health Thailand, Thailand; Darmawan Budi Setyanto: Division of Respirology, Pediatric Dept, RSCM hospital, Faculty of Medicine, University of Indonesia, Indonesia; Dyah Erti Mustikawati: National TB Program, Directorate DTDC, Ministry of Health Indonesia, Indonesia; Davide Manissero: Scientific and Medical Affairs, QIAGEN, UK; Erlina Burhan: Dept of Pulmonology and Respiratory Medicine, Persahabatan Hospital Jakarta, Faculty of Medicine, University of Indonesia, Jakarta, Indonesia; Fera Ibrahim: Dept of Pulmonology and Respiratory Medicine, Persahabatan Hospital Jakarta, Faculty of Medicine, University of Indonesia, Jakarta, Indonesia; Gan Suay Hong: Singapore TB Control Unit, Singapore; Gopalan Narendra: National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis, New Delhi, India; Guiyuan Jiang: Respiratory Dept, Xiamen Chang Gung Hospital, China; Hee Jin Kim: Korean Institute of Tuberculosis, Korea; Jianhua Zhu: Respiratory Dept, Nanfang Hospital, Nanfang Medical University, China; Jin Takasaki: National Center for Global Health and Medicine, Japan; Jing Wang: Laboratory dept, China–Japan Friendship Hospital, China; Joseph K.M. Kam: Centre for Health Protection, Dept of Health, Hong Kong; Kaewalee Soontornmon: Bureau of Tuberculosis, Dept of disease control, Ministry of Public Health Thailand, Thailand; Lei Gao: Institute of Pathogen Biology, Institute of Chinese academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, China; Lin Zhu: Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China; Masae Loyce Kawamura: Scientific and Medical Affairs, QIAGEN, USA; Mengqiu Gao: TB Dept, Beijing Chest Hospital, Beijing, China; Nastiti Kaswandani: Division of Respirology, Pediatric Dept, RSCM hospital, Faculty of Medicine, University of Indonesia, Indonesia; Nobuyuki Nishikiori: Stop TB and Leprosy at WHO Manila, Philippines; Prakash Pispati: Rheumatology, Jaslok Hospital and Research Centre, and Saifee Hospital, Mumbai, India; Prijanti Soepandi: Dept of Pulmonology and Respiratory Medicine, Persahabatan Hospital Jakarta, Faculty of Medicine, University of Indonesia, Jakarta, Indonesia; Richard Brostrom: TB Control Program, Hawaii, USA; Ritesh Gupta: Fortis Centre of excellence for diabetes, metabolic disease and endocrinology, India; Satoshi Mitarai: Research Institute of Tuberculosis Japan, Japan; Seiya Kato: Research Institute of Tuberculosis Japan, Japan; Seung Chul Lee: Korea Centre of Disease Control, Korea; Shuihua Lu: TB Dept, Shanghai Public Clinical Health Center, China; Srikanth Tripathy: Jalma Agra, ICMR Institute, India; Toru Mori: Research Institute of Tuberculosis (RIT), Japan; Visalakshi Potharaju: Ampath Hyderabad, India; Wei Kwang Luk: Infection Control, Tseung Kwan Hospital, Taiwan; Wenjiang Ning: Laboratory Dept, Peking University Third Hospital, China; Zongde Zhang: Beijing Chest Hospital, China; Ying Meng: Respiratory Dept at Nanfang Hospital, China; Yunfeng Deng: Laboratory Dept, Shandong Chest Hospital, China; Zamzurina Abdul Bakar: Institute of Respiratory Medicine, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.