Stop TB Canada e-News
Issue #3
January to March, 2006


Welcome to Stop TB Canada’s e-Newsletter.  Stop TB Canada e-News serves as a quarterly communication forum between Stop TB Canada members and a source of information for the wider international health community on Stop TB activities in Canada and on international TB projects managed or supported by Canadian organizations.

Stop TB Canada was formed in February 2001 to support Canada in fulfilling its commitment to the G-8 Okinawa 2000 targets to reduce the global burden of TB by 50 percent by 2010. For more information on Stop TB Canada see the last section of this e-News.

In this issue


Second draft of the Patient’s Charter of the Tuberculosis Community welcoming comments
January 17, 2006

http://www.tbtv.org is the gateway into an exciting and innovative community of patients, former patients, health professionals and concerned 'global citizens' who have recognized both the lack of support for the millions of people who suffer from tuberculosis, and the silence and stigma that contribute to the continuing global TB epidemic.

The mission of TBTV is to provide support and a means or developing solidarity for tuberculosis patients around the world, with a special concern for those with MDR-TB (Multi Drug Resistant) and TB-HIV co-infections.  Their goal has been to establish and develop a means of communication that serves to connect their audiences and foster a sense of community among them. From there, the ‘activist’ arm of the organization, TB-active, seeks to develop a grassroots style campaign to promote and protect the rights of TB patients everywhere. The website itself is an interactive platform which parodies television, thus the name TBTV.

Toward their goals, TBTV/TB-active has undertaken the ambitious project of drafting a charter of rights and responsibilities for TB patients. These include the rights to:


Patients’ responsibilities are defined under the Charter as:


The Patients’ Charter is being drafted in tandem to the development of the new International Standards of Tuberculosis Care (ISTC).  It is hoped that together, these two documents will provide a ‘patient-centered’ approach to the care of people with TB, MDR-TB and TB-HIV co infection.
 
The Charter is now in its second draft, and TBTV has put out an invitation for input from anyone and everyone who believes in the rights of people everywhere to be protected from or cured of, TB. Please take a moment to visit TBTV to review the Patients’ Charter and provide your suggestions and support to this admirable and important cause.

http://www.tbtv.org

Update on Canadian TB Standards – 6th Edition
January 17, 2006

The 2006 edition of the Canadian Tuberculosis Standards, a joint production of the Canadian Lung Association/Canadian Thoracic Society and Tuberculosis Prevention and Control, Public Health Agency of Canada is now in the final stages of revision under the general editorship of Richard Long. The 2000 edition, also edited by Richard Long, is available at the following web site. The Canadian TB Standards is a rich resource on the epidemiology, medical and public health aspects of TB in Canada.

Fore more details, please visit:
http://www.lung.ca/tb/tb_summary_english.html

10th Annual Conference of the IUATLD-North American Region
January 17, 2006

All are welcome to attend the 10th Annual Conference of the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease - North American Region, the premier TB meeting in North America. This year’s meeting will be held at the Knickerbocker Hotel in Chicago from March 2 to 4. The meeting will feature a half day on TB epidemiology in honor of Dr. George Comstock. A more detailed description of the event was circulated in Issue #2 of Stop TB Canada e-News.

To download the brochure and registration form, please visit:
http://www.iuatld.org/upload/conference/2006%20IUATLD%20BROCHURE-CHICAGO_11_fina_en.pdf

3x5 catalytic but falls short of target by 1 million patients
January 17, 2005

WHO's 2003 goal in the roll out of anti-retroviral treatment (ART) was to have 3 million patients started by the end of 2005. Although the goal was catalytic in moving global and national institutions to action, at the end of December 2005 WHO reported that although some countries are making progress, the world would fall about one million short of the target <http://www.aidstreatmentaccess.org/>.The short fall is blamed on bureaucracy, stigma, poor management and inadequate funding, by the international treatment preparedness coalition. In May 2006, the 5-year progress review of the UNGASS Declaration of Commitment will examine the proposal by Kofi Anan that there will be access to ART for  all by 2010.

Stop TB Partnership to  Release Global Plan to Stop TB 2006-2015
January 17, 2006

The Global Plan to Stop TB 2006-2015 is nearing its final release dated, scheduled sometime in January, 2006. Following up on the successes of its predecessor, among which is the remarkable achievement of the Global TB Drug Facility to treat more that 4 million patients in 4 years, the Global Plan is touted as a much more robust and ambitious blueprint for advocacy. The Plan will set out resource requirements and describe “regional and global scenarios for impacts and costs of planned activities.”

TB advocates will find the Global Plan an indispensable tool for this year’s World TB Day, taking place March 24th, 2004. The Stop TB Partnership is encouraging a thematic focus for this World TB Day to be built on the Global Plan’s advocacy strategy, with theme “Actions for Life: towards a world free of tuberculosis.” The Global Plan will provide interim targets and detailed strategies, in accordance to the Stop TB Partnership’s overall mission, which is:


A more detailed report on the Global Plan’s contents and its global reception will follow in the next issue of e-News. To stay up to date on Global Plan announcements, please visit:
http://www.stoptb.org

CIDA supports WHO in $1.1M Pledge to tackle TB in North Korea
January 12, 2006

The World Health Organization has pledged $1.1 million to help tackle tuberculosis in North Korea this year, according to Eigil Sorensen, WHO's representative in the country. (Varivoda, Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies, 1/12). WHO will provide $650,000 to buy TB drugs, and the Canadian International Development Agency will contribute $450,000 to operate a laboratory that will be established in the north of the country. According to Sorensen, 210 per 100,000 people in North Korea are living with the disease, and the country's TB incidence rate is one of the highest in the world (Yonhap News, 1/12).

Launch of Global Health Facts website with data on HIV/AIDS, TB, and Malaria
January 9, 2006

A new and freely available website with the latest country and region-specific data on HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other key health indicators -- was launched on Monday, January 9, 2006 by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a non-profit, private operating foundation focused on health care issues. The data are displayed in tables, charts, and color-coded maps and can be downloaded for custom analyses.

Data on country specific TB indicators include:


GlobalHealthFacts.org is a companion site to GlobalHealthReporting.org, which provides news summaries, webcasts, background information, and tools for journalists on HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. GlobalHealthReporting.org is also operated by Kaiser, with major support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Visit: http://www.globalhealthfacts.org/linktous.jsp

Updates from the coalition of Stop TB country groups
December 9, 2005

A meeting by conference call of the leaders of several country STOP TB committees was held with the following country representatives in attendance: STOP TB Italy, Uganda, Sudan, Canada, Russia, Mexico, as well as the working group on advocacy Joanne Carter and the STOP TB partnership representative Val Diaz. It was agreed that bench marks would be established to measure impact of advocacy activities. Resources of the partnership will be used to undertake a web-based discussion of best practice in advocacy. The group will meet quarterly and hold a workshop at the next World lung congress to develop a handbook on STOP TB country level organization. Lessons for STOP TB Canada are the very significant impact of engaging political will. STOP TB Italy has been successful in engaging their president in declaring support for global TB control a priority. Mexico has been successful in getting STOP TB groups working at each state level. STOP TB Sudan has engaged university students  and labour organizations in the STOP TB movement. Thus both high burden countries and donor countries have a role to play in STOP TB.

Public Health Agency of Canada Sponsors TB Training and Clinical Consultation Needs Assessment Survey - Deadline February 28, 2006
December 9, 2005

In November, 2004, on behalf of the Canadian Tuberculosis Committee, the Tuberculosis Prevention and Control Program at the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) sponsored the Urban Issues in Tuberculosis Control meeting in Toronto, Ontario. The purpose of this meeting was to provide a forum for key stakeholders to discuss and make recommendations on issues related to TB prevention and control in large Canadian urban areas.

Several important ideas came forward from this meeting including the recommendation that an assessment be done to determine how well the tuberculosis training and clinical consultation needs of Canadian health care practitioners are being met currently. This recommendation was made in response to concerns raised about variation in the need for and access to training and clinical consultation among provinces, territories, regions and local TB programs.

To address this recommendation, the Tuberculosis Prevention and Control Program at the Public Health Agency of Canada has contracted with The Learning Rx to develop a needs assessment survey to gather information about the TB training and clinical consultation needs of various stakeholder groups involved in tuberculosis prevention and control activities in Canada, including physicians, nurses, pharmacists, educational resource distributors, infection control and occupational health practitioners, and others. The survey tool itself is electronic (Internet-based), which will enable participants to complete and return their responses quickly and easily. The survey is available in both English and French. Distribution of the survey began in mid December, 2005.

A significant number of participants are needed to ensure that the information collected by the survey questions is valid and representative. All thirteen provincial and territorial TB programs, as well as representatives from the Public Health Agency of Canada, Health Canada’s First Nations and Inuit Health Branch, Health Canada’s Workplace Health and Public Safety Program, Citizenship and Immigration Canada, Correctional Service Canada, TB related non-governmental organizations, local public health and TB control programs, hospitals, TB clinics and any health care professional involved in TB prevention and control are invited to participate.
 
If you are involved in tuberculosis prevention and control activities in Canada, and would like to participate in the Tuberculosis Training and Clinical Consultation Needs Assessment Survey, please send an email with your name, telephone number, email address and language of preference (English or French) to: thelearningrx@shaw.ca. Responses are being sought before February 28, 2006.

Winstone Zulu Conducts Advocacy Tour Across Canada
November 15, 2005

From November 4 to 15, Winstone Zulu, leading TB and HIV activist from Zambia, visited four Canadian cities on a cross country TB advocacy tour. Winstone’s message echoed the words of Nelson Mandela at last year’s International AIDS Conference in Bangkok: “we can’t fight AIDS unless we do much more to fight TB as well.” Kicking off the tour in Montreal with a lecture at McGill University, Winstone spoke to medical students alongside members of McGill’s tuberculosis research team.  The presentation focused on the striking need for new drugs, improved diagnosis and more research into the social and economic dimensions of the TB epidemic.  In Ottawa, Winstone met with representatives from NGOs working on global health and AIDS advocacy to discuss the opportunities and challenges in fighting the co-epidemics of TB and HIV in Africa and globally. The first but definitely not the last event of its kind, the discussion provided a foundation for further collaboration between HIV/AIDS and TB advocates. Winstone’s visit in Ottawa also included interviews with A-Channel television breakfast show and Embassy Magazine. Thousands more Canadians heard Winstone’s inspiring story on Calgary’s most popular radio show as well as on Shaw Cable television and in the University of Calgary’s student newspaper.

Throughout his cross-country tour, Winstone spoke to crowds of up to 600 at RESULTS Canada fundraising events.  Despite some debilitating health difficulties, Winstone was effective in bringing attention to Canada’s leading role in the global fight against tuberculosis, and in reminding the Canadian public and policy makers that the battle is far from won. He spoke passionately about the impact of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, as well as Global TB Drug Facility, and the need to scale up Canada’s support for to the two mechanisms. He also highlighted the generosity of the Stephen Lewis Foundation in Zambia.

Italy Aims to Prioritize Global TB Fight at 2006 G8 Meeting
November 11, 2005

Speaking in Assisi at the “Fight Against TB” Conference organized by Italian Aid, Italy’s undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs declared that his country will attempt to make the global fight against TB a priority in St. Petersburg when the G8 holds their next summit later this year. Drago said that in light of “newer emergencies,” TB is being forgotten, adding that it remains the biggest single problem in terms of numbers, with TB claiming two million lives each year. He also highlighted the rapid spread of TB in Africa as well as the increasingly common and difficult to treat multi-drug resistant TB.

Canada has not made similar statements, though Mr. Drago confirmed that Italy will take up the duty of informing other members of the G8 on the global fight against TB. Canada is in a strong position to be a leader in this issue through its support for the highly successful Global TB Drug Facility (GDF), which was launched with Canadian funding in 2001. Canada remains the leading supporter of the GDF. By working with Italian officials to ensure that TB is on the agenda at the 2006 G8 Summit, Canada can take advantage of its commendable track record and lead the drive to more effectively engage the Group of Eight Industrialized Nations on the global fight against TB.

More details on Italy’s announcement are available at the News and Announcements Section at:
http://www.stoptb.org

Report Back from the 36th Union World Conference on Lung Health
October 22, 2005

The 36th annual world lung congress of the IUATLD was held October 18-22, 2005 with approximately 2000 attendees from 130 nations.  During the 4 days of meetings, 25/30 seminars focused on TB or TB and HIV issues. But broader lung health issues included tobacco cessation, and tobacco links to TB and asthma. Special attention was accorded the need for better childhood TB diagnostics, successes in private sector engagement, and new attention to patient rights and TB advocacy. New diagnostics and new vaccines were updated and the Global Drug Alliance announced field trials of moxifloxacin. There were about 1000 abstracts which yielded good discussion sessions. The congress has become the centerpiece for meetings of the STOP TB partnership and its working groups, meeting just before or just after the congress, and making the link between the presentation of research and the discussion of research into action. Outstanding presentations included the work of Dr Anthony Harries and the Malawians in delivering anti-retroviral treatment to 30,000 HIV-infected persons in a national system modeled on TB program of training, uninterrupted delivery and outcome evaluation.

This year’s conference also featured a strong focus on TB advocacy, with a high number of advocacy sessions and a greater patient advocate attendance. Plenary presentations by Helene Gail (Bill and Melinda Gate Foundation) on the urgent need to step up and expand effective advocacy on TB were counterbalanced with remarks by Zaki Akmad (Treatment Action Campaign) on the transferability of tools from high successful AIDS advocacy to the TB arena.

Two weeks earlier, in Paris, TB controllers, NGO and the IUATLD met to discuss TB incidence in the 5 megalopolis' of Paris, London, Milan, Barcelona and Rotterdam (rates of 27 - 43/100 000) and New York, now decreased to 15/100 000 since the reorganization of the TB services in 1991. Immigrants are responsible for almost 2/3 of TB cases in all cities (65% to 83%) except Barcelona where Spanish-born cases are the majority (65%). The multi drug resistant rates (MDR-TB) are 0.7 – 1.6%. The role of the HIV epidemic (4.9% - 16% of TB cases) is in regression in all. Information transfer, and centralization of control was part of the New York solution. Problem areas identified were prisons and immigrant entry screening processes. The 37th World lung congress of 2006 Oct 31 - November 4 will focus on Human resources for lung health.

Announcement of the Asthma Drug Facility
September 1, 2005

The Union is working with WHO and other partners to create a new drug supply mechanism – the Asthma Drug Facility (ADF) – that will allow clients to buy affordable good quality essential asthma drugs. The ADF is following the same basic principles that guided the establishment of the Stop TB Partnership’s successful Global TB Drug Facility (GDF). The ADF will supply asthma drugs crucial for implementation of the Practical Approach to Lung health (PAL). Improving the health services response to respiratory illness and the affordability of drugs will mean better care for patients. With improved credibility of health services, more patients will consult, and detection rates should rise for diseases such as TB, other lung diseases, and HIV.

For the latest information about the ADF , please visit:
http://www.GlobalADF.org

Links to TB Articles in Canadian News
This section is a new addition to Stop TB Canada e-News. More comprehensive listings will be featured in upcoming issue. Suggestions for news items to be included in this section can be forwarded to labib@results-resultats.ca.

Just one TB case in city shelters (CBC)
November 29, 2005
http://www.cbc.ca/toronto/story/to_tuberculosis20051129.html

More on Stop TB Canada

Stop TB Canada was formed in February 2001 to support Canada in fulfilling its commitment to the targets of the G-8 Okinawa 2000 Communiqué to reduce poverty and the diseases of poverty and specifically to halve the global burden of TB by 2010.
http://www.g8.utoronto.ca/summit/2000okinawa/finalcom.htm

Stop TB Canada has the following objectives:

  1. To promote and support TB education for health care providers, decision makers and the public;
  2. To advocate for appropriate policies, guidelines and priorities that enhance global TB control;
  3. To facilitate and encourage communication with our members and partiers in an open and transparent manner to advance global TB control;
  4. To ensure collaboration and co-ordination between Canadian government departments, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), professional organisations, the private sector and other stakeholders in the global fight against TB.


Stop TB Canada is a member of the Stop TB Partnership, a global alliance to accelerate social and political action to end preventable deaths from TB and stop its global spread. To achieve that goal, the Partnership is committed to: promoting universal access to accurate diagnosis and effective treatment by accelerating the expansion of DOTS (Directly Observed Treatment, Short Course) and increasing the availability, affordability and quality of TB drugs; developing effective strategies to prevent and manage multi-resistant and reduce the impact of HIV on TB; promoting research on new diagnostic tests, drugs and vaccines.
 
For more information on Stop TB Canada, visit:
http://www.stoptb.ca

For comments or to submit headlines for publication in the next edition of Stop TB Canada e-News, please contact Labib El-Ali at labib@results-resultats.ca.
 
Other web resources for TB news and events


Other links:
World Health Organisation – TB
http://www.who.int/tb/en/

The Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria
http://www.theglobalfund.org/en/

TB Global Alliance for TB Drug Development
http://www.tballiance.org/

The Aeras Global TB Vaccine Foundation
http://www.aeras.org/index.html

For global data on HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria
http://www.globalhealthfacts.org/
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Stop TB Bulletin is produced by Stop TB Canada with the support of RESULTS Canada.