CTICC - International convention centre, Cape Town, South Africa
The Annual Meeting of the New Diagnostics Working Group was held on 3 December 2015 at the 46th Union World Conference in Cape Town. The meeting reviewed three main areas of activity in which the NDWG has engaged to advance TB diagnostics research and development. In the first session we examined the promises of next generation sequencing for detection of anti-microbial resistance and presented progress on the development of the ReSeqTB data sharing platform. Presentations in the second session discussed the new priorities for drug susceptibility testing in order to ensure the successful adoption of new TB drug regimens and highlighted the role of laboratory-based approaches. The third session focused on the development of tests for progression of latent TB to active disease, which are required to efficiently introduce targeted preventive therapy and support the goal of TB elimination. In particular, we reported on the outcomes of an expert meeting organized by the NDWG in collaboration with partners and shared the latest updates on the development of target product profiles and study protocols.