Stop TB Partnership

43rd Union World Conference on Lung Health to tackle issues from multidrug-resistant TB to tobacco control

13 September - Paris - More than 3 000 lung health experts and advocates from countries around the world will come together in Kuala Lumpur on 13-17 November 2012 to discuss the latest opportunities and challenges in the fight against lung disease.

The 43rd Union World Conference on Lung Health, organised by the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union), will be held at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre. Programme details and registration information may be found at www.worldlunghealth.org

This year’s conference theme is Driving Sustainability through Mutual Responsibility, highlighting the need for the health care community, governments, donors, civil society and patient advocacy groups to work together to sustain progress and reach international targets for lung health.

Key challenges that will be discussed at the conference include:

• The rising incidence of drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB), including the threat of an incurable totally drug-resistant TB
• The needs of 2 million patients who require simultaneous treatment for both tuberculosis and HIV each year
• The increase in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and how to reduce the impact of the major risk factor: tobacco use
• The neglect of childhood lung diseases: including pneumonia, childhood TB, asthma and acute lower respiratory infections
• The pandemic of diseases caused by tobacco use

The five-day scientific programme involving presenters from 65 countries will include more than 150 postgraduate courses and workshops, symposia, plenary sessions, abstract-driven and poster-related sessions, meet-the-experts and a late-breaker session on TB research. Highlights include:

• Prof Lee Reichman (USA), author of Timebomb: The Global Epidemic of Multidrug-Resistant TB, giving the Sir John Crofton Memorial Lecture on "Timebomb Revisited Ten Years Later: Can we sustain progress or are we losing the war?"
• Prof Guy Marks (Australia) analysing "The Global Burden of Respiratory Disease" at a plenary session
• Dr Anneke Hesseling (South Africa) making the case for "Childhood TB: We need to do more" at the final plenary session.

Conference delegates and the local community will have an opportunity to express their support for better lung health awareness on Saturday, 17 November at the Run for Your Lungs cosponsored by The Union and the Malaysian Association for the Prevention of Tuberculosis (MAPTB). The run will mark several important advocacy efforts for lung health: World Pneumonia Day (Monday, 12 November), World COPD Day (Wednesday, 14 November) and Lung Cancer Awareness Month (November 2012). Funds raised by the run will benefit MAPTB. For further details on the Run for Your Lungs, please write to kualalumpur2012@theunion.org.

Complete details about the 43rd Union World Conference on Lung Health may be found on the conference website at www.worldlunghealth.org