The Tuberculosis Pandemic – A Call to Action
Science, Application, Politics
Swiss TPH Hybrid Symposium

21-22 March 2023
Kreuzstrasse 2, 4123 Allschwil, Switzerland
Tuberculosis (TB) remains one of the world’s deadliest diseases. Despite being a preventable and curable disease, 1.5 million people die from TB each year. To re-awake public awareness, spark the global response and drive policy change, Swiss TPH organizes a symposium in spring 2023 dedicated to TB research. Topics will include:
- State of the TB pandemic
- Latest on basic and applied science
- Health system issues
- The poverty connection
- How decision makers can support progress
Information
08:30 | Registration (8:55 virtual check-in) |
Moderators: Sonia Borrell and Christian Auer, Swiss TPH | |
09:00 | Welcome Jürg Utzinger, Director, Swiss TPH |
09:05 | Introductory Remarks, Lucica Ditiu, Executive Director, Stop TB Partnership, Switzerland (remote) |
09:10 | TB in the World Today: Update on the Epidemic and Progress in the Response, Matteo Zignol, Director a.i., Global TB Programme, WHO, Switzerland (remote) |
09:50 | The Burden of TB: DALYs, Socioeconomic Consequences, Stigma, Christian Auer, Swiss TPH |
10:20 | Break (15 minutes) |
10:35 | Community Perspective, Rhea Lobo, TB survivor and Board Member (Community Delegation) of the Stop TB Partnership, Switzerland (remote) |
10:45 | Why Social Protection is Essential to End TB, Delia Boccia, WHO Consultant, Switzerland (remote) |
11:15 | TB Advocacy, Stijn Deborggraeve, Médecins Sans Frontières, The Netherlands, and Austin Arinze Obiefuna, Afro Global Alliance and Stop TB Partnership Board, Ghana |
11:35 | Global Plan to End TB – How Can We End TB and How Much it Will Cost, Lucica Ditiu, Stop TB Partnership, Switzerland (remote), and Peter Sands, Executive Director, the Global Fund, Switzerland (remote) |
12:05 | The TB Caucus: Its Mission, Nick Herbert, Co-Chair, TB Caucus and Member of UK Parliament (video), and Alesia Matusevych, TB Caucus, Portugal (remote) |
12:25 | The TB Caucus – a European Perspective, Tina Rudolph, Member of German Parliament (remote) |
12:45 | Reaction from a Swiss Politician, the UNION and WHO, Eva Herzog, Member of Swiss Parliament, Switzerland, Kobto Ghislain Koura, Director TB Department, International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, France (remote); Tereza Kasaeva, Assistant Director-General, Universal Health Coverage, WHO (remote) |
13:05 | Lunch Break (55 minutes) |
Moderator: Tiffany Bouchery, Swiss TPH
14:00 | Revisiting the Natural History of Tuberculosis. Why does it Matter? Alberto García-Basteiro, Centro de Investigação em Saúde de Manhiça, Mozambique and Instituto de Salud Global de Barcelona, Spain |
14:30 | Ecology and Evolution of MDR-TB, Sébastien Gagneux, Swiss TPH |
15:00 | Advances in Mycobacterium Tuberculosis Genomics to Inform TB Control, Iñaki Comas, Tuberculosis Genomics Unit, Instituto de Biomedicina de Valencia, Spain |
15:30 | Coffee Break (20 minutes) |
15:50 | Dissecting Immune Responses along the Spectrum of Tuberculosis ex vivo in a Human 3D Granuloma Model, Damien Portevin, Swiss TPH |
16:20 | Immunity to Tuberculosis: Re-evaluating What We Think We Know, Carolyn King, Department of Biomedicine, University of Basel, Switzerland |
16:50 | TB Basic Biology: the Pathogen, Margarida Saraiva, Life and Health Sciences Research Institute, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal |
17:20 | TB and Diabetes, Dorothy Yebuoah-Manu, Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, University of Ghana (remote) |
17:50 | End of Day 1 |
Moderator: Claudia Daubenberger, Swiss TPH
08:40 | Check-in and Welcome (8:55 Virtual Check-in) |
09:00 | TB Diagnostics: Newer Tools and Outlook, Adam Penn-Nicholson, FIND, Switzerland |
09:30 | Active Case Finding, Community Screening, Klaus Reither, Swiss TPH |
10:00 | Prevention is better than Cure: Development of More Effective TB Vaccines, Tom Scriba, University of Cape Town, South Africa (remote) |
10:30 | Coffee Break (30 minutes) |
11:00 | The Emerging Phenotype of Ancestral Tuberculosis, Bouke de Jong, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Belgium |
11:30 | The Current TB Drug Trial Landscape and the Need for Capacity Development, Nestani Tukvadze, National Center for Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases, Georgia |
12:00 | Paediatric TB: Doing More with Less, Nicole Ritz, Children’s Hospital Lucerne and University Children’s Hospital Basel, Switzerland |
12:30 | Lunch Break (1 hour) |
Moderator: Astrid Knoblauch and Xavier Bosch-Capblanch, Swiss TPH
13:30 | TB Treatment and Drug Development – the Value of Cohort Studies, Jerry Hella, Ifakara Health Institute, Tanzania (remote) |
14:00 | Responding to Rapidly Changing HIV and Tuberculosis Epidemiology in Africa, Peter McPherson, School of Health and Wellbeing, University of Glasgow, UK |
14:30 | Host Specificity in Human and Animal Tuberculosis through the Lens of Genomics, Daniela Brites, Swiss TPH |
15:00 | Coffee Break (20 minutes) |
15:20 | TB in Prisons, Jason Andrews, Stanford Medicine, USA (remote) |
15:50 | Addressing the intersection between Gender and Social Determinants to End TB, Bertie Squire, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, UK (remote); Chukwuebuka Ugwu, Zankli Research Centre, Bingham University, Nigeria (remote) |
16:20 | Strengthened Health Care Systems for Ending TB, Annabel Baddeley, WHO, Switzerland (remote) |
16:50 | General Discussion and Wrap-up, Marcel Tanner, Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences; Sébastien Gagneux, Swiss TPH |
17:15 | End of Symposium |

Lucica Ditui
Executive Director, Stop TB Partnership

Jürg Utzinger
Director, Swiss TPH

Stijn Deborggraeve
Diagnostics Advisor, Médecins Sans Frontières

Tereza Kasaeva
Assistant Director-General, Universal Health Coverage, World Health Organization, Switzerland

Tina Rudolph
Member of German Parliament

Alberto Lopez García-Basteiro
Associate Research Professor, Centro de Investigação em Saúde de Manhiça, Mozambique

Sébastien Gagneux, Swiss TPH
Head of Department, Medical Parasitology and Infection Biology, Swiss TPH

Margarida Saraiva
Group Leader, Infection, Immunity and Regeneration, i3S- University of Porto

Adam Penn-Nicholson
Deputy Director of TB, Medical Affairs, FIND, the global alliance for diagnostics

Nestani Tukvadze
Director, TB Clinical Research Unit, National Center for Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases, Georgia

Peter MacPherson
Professor of Global Public Health, School of Health and Wellbeing, University of Glasgow, UK

Daniela Brites
Scientific Project Leader, Medical Parasitology and Infection Biology, Swiss TPH

Chukwuebuka Ugwu
Early Career Researcher, Clinical Sciences, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, UK

Matteo Zignol
Director a.i., Global TB Programme, World Health Organization

Rhea Lobo
TB survivor and Board Member, Stop TB Partnership

Austin Arinze Obiefuna
Afro Global Alliance and Stop TB Partnership Board

Nick Herbert
Co-Chair, TB Caucus and Member of UK Parliament

Kobto Koura
Director TB, International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, France

Iñaki Comas
Principal Investigator, Tuberculosis Genomics Unit, Instituto de Biomedicina de Valencia, Spain

Marcel Tanner
President, Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences; Director emeritus and Hon. President R. Geigy Foundation

Damien Portevin
Group Leader, Medical Parasitology and Infection Biology, Swiss TPH

Dorothy Yebuoah-Manu
Director, Bacteriology, Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, University of Ghana

Klaus Reither
Head of Clinical Research Unit, Medicine, Swiss TPH

Bouke de Jong
Head of Mycobacteriology Unit, Biomedical Science Department, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Belgium

Jerry Hella
Deputy Head of Department, Interventions and Clinical Trials, Ifakara Health Institute, Tanzania

Jason Andrews
Associate Professor, Medicine, Stanford University, USA

Eva Herzog
Member of Swiss Parliament

Delia Boccia
Consultant, Global Tuberculosis Programme, World Health Organization

Peter Sands
Executive Director, the Global Fund

Alesia Matusevych
Regional Europe and Central Asia Regional Manager, Global TB Caucus, Portugal

Christian Auer
Public Health Specialist and Epidemiologist, Swiss Centre for International health, Swiss TPH

Sonia Borrell
Project Leader, Medical Parasitology and Infection Biology, Swiss TPH

Carolyn King
Scientist, Department of Biomedicine, University of Basel, Switzerland

Tiffany Bouchery
Assistant Professor, Medical Parasitology and Infection Biology, Swiss TPH

Thomas Scriba
Deputy Director, SATVI, Pathology, University of Cape Town, South Africa

Nicole Ritz
Head of Paediatrics and Paediatric Infectious Diseases, Children’s Hospital Lucerne and University Children’s Hospital Basel

Claudia Daubenberger
Unit Head, Clinical Immunology, Medical Parasitology and Infection Biology, Swiss TPH

Bertie Squire
Professor of Clinical Tropical Medicine, Clinical Sciences, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, UK

Xavier Bosch-Capblanch
Project Leader, Public Health, Swiss Center for Intrernational Health, Swiss TPH

Astrid Knoblauch
Project Manager, Diseases and Programmes, Health Impact Assessment, Swiss Centre for International Health, Swiss TPH

Annabel Baddeley
Technical Officer, World Health Organization, Switzerland