The plenary sessions of this year’s Union World Conference on Lung Health featured a host of experts and dignitaries addressing the key issues the global lung health community currently faces.
The plenary sessions of this year’s Union World Conference on Lung Health featured a host of experts and dignitaries addressing the key issues the global lung health community currently faces.
The first plenary session, on Thursday 12 October, The road to the UN HLM, looked at the implications of next year’s United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) High-Level Meeting (HLM), the first ever UNGA HLM dedicated to the fight against tuberculosis (TB). Watch a video of the first plenary session here.
The plenary considered significant waypoints on the journey to the HLM, notably the World Health Organization Global Ministerial Conference on the fight against TB in the context of public health Sustainable Development Goals, hosted by the Russian Federation in Moscow on 16-17 November 2017, which will bring together ministers from across the globe, for discussion that will inform the HLM.
The plenary session was chaired by Dr Eric Goosby, UN Special Envoy on Tuberculosis and featured an expert panel including Prof Michel Kazatchkine, UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on HIV/AIDS in Eastern Europe and Central Asia and President of the Union Dr Jeremiah Chakaya Muhwa.
The following plenary on Friday 13 October saw tobacco control experts discuss the lived experience of the impact of the tobacco industry's corporate abuse of economically disenfranchised groups. Watch a video of the second plenary session here.
Chaired by Matthew Myers, President of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, the session covered women's tobacco use, legal and human rights implications of tobacco use, and the tobacco industry’s corporate abuse of vulnerable groups. The session featured contributions from The Union’s Gustavo Sóñora, Legal Consultant for tobacco control in Latin America, Ms Adriana Carvalho, Legal Director at ACT Health Promotion and Ms Alicia Yolanda, Coordinator of CODICE in the state of Jalisco.
The third plenary session on Saturday 14 October explored Accelerating lung health over the life course. The meeting was chaired by Union past-president Dr E Jane Carter, and Dr Hèctor Raùl Pèrez Gòmez, General Manager of Mexico Civil Hospitals.
The session called for a revolution in the quality of TB care, and looked at post-mortem methods in low- and middle income countries, with contributions from: Prof Madhukar Pai, Canada Research Chair in Epidemiology & Global Health, Director, McGill Global Health Programs, Associate Director, McGill International TB Centre; Dr Quique Bassat, Barcelona Institute for Global Health; Dr Catharina Boehme, Executive Director, Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics; and Mr Enrique Delgado, TB Project Latam-Spain, (Panama), Watch a video of the third plenary session here.
See the full list of plenary sessions at the 48th Union World Conference on Lung Health
Find out more about the 48th Union World Conference on Lung Health