Maternal TB during pregnancy and postpartum is associated with poor outcomes for both mother and child, especially for HIV-infected pregnant women with TB disease. However, key healthcare entry points for women and children still lack integrated TB screening and prevention efforts.
A new Union Maternal–Child Tuberculosis Working Group has been formed to improve TB prevention, detection and treatment for women and children by integrating TB and TB-HIV services into maternal and child health settings, including clinics offering immunisation, antenatal care and prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission services.
The group’s objectives are to:
- share information about promising practices and experiences with country implementation;
- advocate for increased attention to the needs of women and children with TB and TB-HIV;
- close critical research and practice gaps in this field.
Activities planned include symposia at the Union World Conferences on Lung Health in 2015 and 2016, meta-analyses and systematic reviews to inform research and programme priorities, development of implementation guides and tools to assist maternal and child health programmes and publication of a photojournalism project highlighting maternal and childhood tuberculosis. This Working Group falls under the Adult & Child Lung Health Scientific Section.
Working Group Co-chairs:
- Dr Surbhi Modi, Lead, Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV Team at US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (USA)
- Dr Adrie Bekker, Neonatologist, Stellenbosch University, Tygerberg Children’s Hospital, Cape Town, South Africa
- Dr Lisa Cranmer, Assistant Professor of Pediatric Infectious Disease, Emory University School of Medicine, and Children’s Physician Group (USA)
Interested Union members are invited to join the new Maternal-Child Tuberculosis Working Group. To join, please log in to your account at http://services.theunion.org and click on “Membership”, followed by “My membership details”, where you may then select your working group preferences.