A new Union course focussed on the care of individuals with latent tuberculosis infection will be launched at the 50th Union World Conference on Lung Health in October.
A new Union course focussed on the care of individuals with latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) will be launched at the 50th Union World Conference on Lung Health in October.
Scaling up programmatic management of LTBI is a critical action to achieve the World Health Organisation (WHO) End TB Strategy targets. About one-third of the world's population has latent tuberculosis (TB), which means they have been infected by TB bacteria but are not ill with the disease and cannot transmit the disease.
Preventing the development of active disease by providing preventive treatment to those who are at high risk is essential to ending the TB epidemic globally. This new online training programme will train clinicians, healthcare workers and national TB programme managers in the successful treatment of LTBI.
Led by Dr Grania Brigden, The Union’s Deputy Director, Department of TB and HIV, and Liesbeth Oey, The Union’s TB and Lung Health Training Manager, the aim of this course is to help improve knowledge regarding all aspects of LTBI care, including diagnosis and treatment.
The Union’s goal is to increase country-level implementation of LTBI care among;
- Household contacts of people affected by TB, especially under five-year-old contacts of people in treatment for TB.
- Persons with risk factors to develop TB
- People living with HIV
The target audience for this course are National TB Programme (NTP) staff; National AIDS Programme (NAP) staff; clinicians (specialists, paediatricians, pneumologists, general practitioners, nurses) working with TB and/or HIV patients and other high-risk groups; and health care workers at all levels.
The free six-hour course, made possible thanks to sponsorship from Sanofi, will be launched in October 2019 in English, with a French version available in quarter one of 2020. The course will be available on The Union’s online learning management system and participants who successfully complete the programme will be awarded a Continuing Education Unit certification from the International Association for Continuing Education and Training.
This course is the latest addition to The Union’s extensive training suite of offline courses, which are tailored provide the knowledge and skills required by healthcare professionals and programme managers to develop clinically sound and administratively effective public health programmes.
Sign up to receive our newsletter and to stay up to date with the latest courses news and launches.