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The Union’s world conference draws on historic legacy to bring collaborative thinking to Liverpool

A message from José Luis Castro

This week registration opened for The Union’s annual conference on lung health.  This is the world’s largest meeting of…

The theme for World No Tobacco Day 2016 (WNTD) was ‘Get Ready for Plain Packaging’. The Union joined international calls for countries to introduce plain tobacco packaging to encourage users to quit and discourage non-users from trying addictive nicotine products. Further,…

President Obama and Prime Minister Modi underline importance of MDR-TB

A message from José Luis Castro  

Last week, President Barack Obama welcomed Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi to Washington, DC. During the visit, numerous bilateral commitments…

Edinburgh, UK, 31 May 2016 – This World No Tobacco Day, The Union joins international calls for countries to introduce plain tobacco packaging to encourage users to quit and discourage non-users from trying addictive nicotine products. Further, The Union calls for a ‘plain…

Get ready for plain packaging

A message from José Luis Castro for World No Tobacco Day on 31 May 2016  

In support of World No Tobacco Day, 31 May, The Union calls on governments around the world to prepare to introduce plain packaging – eliminating one…

The Union, in collaboration with the Lilly MDR-TB Partnership, is working with local communities to train rural healthcare providers (RHCPs) to provide basic tuberculosis (TB) care, control and prevention, while also reporting new cases of TB to the Revised National…

The Community-Based Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis (MDR-TB) Care project, implemented through The Union Office in Myanmar, has been extended to ten additional areas, bringing its total reach to 33 townships across Myanmar, through a grant from the Global Fund to fight AIDS…

For the past 30 years, healthcare workers providing care to persons with tuberculosis (TB) and multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) and co-morbidities have turned to The Union to learn fundamental skills and the latest best practices.

The Union’s international TB…

The Union, working with a group of medical experts, highlighted the important role the media plays in bringing an end to tuberculosis (TB) in India during a media roundtable event hosted in Delhi in May.

Panellists urged the Indian media to use their influence to…

In 2009 when Gan Quan began working for The Union in China, few people had heard of the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC). Remarkably, just over six years later, a draft national tobacco control law now has strong political support…

The 3rd Conference of The Union South East Asia Region opens on the 26th May in Kathmandu, Nepal. Coordinated by the Nepal Anti-Tuberculosis Association (NATA) with a theme of TB and Lung Health, the conference brings together regional and international experts in the fields…

At its most recent board meeting, World Health Organization Director General Margaret Chan said, “Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a danger of the utmost urgency…We have a global action plan. What we need now is the action.”

As a cornerstone of the issue of…

Edinburgh, UK, 23 May 2016 – Axa, one of the world’s largest insurance companies, announced today that it is selling all 1.8 billion euros (£1.3bn/USD2.0bn) of its tobacco industry shares, saying it made no sense to invest in a sector that killed more than six million people…

Edinburgh, UK, 19 May 2016 – The tobacco industry suffered another crushing defeat today after losing a UK high court battle on the standardised packaging rules due to come into force tomorrow. 

Plain packs will be the same shape, size and drab brown colour,…

This World No Tobacco Day, 31 May, The Union will unite with WHO and partners and call on all countries to get ready for plain packaging.

Plain packs are devoid of all branding and display large pictorial and written warnings on the health consequences of tobacco use…

Research from The International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease; Damien Foundation and Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp proves decisive in ground breaking announcement

  12 May 2016 (Paris, France) – Today the World Health Organization (WHO)…

A milestone for the TB community: a message from José Luis Castro

Today (12 May), the World Health Organization announced new recommendations for a nine-month shortened treatment regimen for multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) patients.  Years of research…

The European Court of Justice today ruled that the EU Tobacco Products Directive [TPD] is valid, rejecting the multiple legal challenges it has attracted since its adoption in 2014. The TPD, drawn up to increase protections for public health, will now come into force on 20…

A message from José Luis Castro on World Asthma Day 2016

Today on World Asthma Day on Tuesday 3 May is a moment to reflect on why lung diseases continue to occupy a place that is considerably lower down the global public health agenda than other health indicators such…

Monicah Andefa has been at the centre of some of The Union’s largest projects since she joined the organisation in 2008. With the exception of one current Challenge TB site in India, her work has been in different African countries, “Since I’m African, I’m especially…

The Union Office in Myanmar hosted its annual New Year’s celebration in early April for 200 children who are HIV positive and receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART) through the Integrated HIV Care (IHC) Programme. The festivities included a dance performance, in which the…

The PATB network is a support network for people affected by tuberculosis (TB) that brings together members of the community to share their experiences with one another and help each other adhere to treatment. The Union has supported the PATB network in Myanmar since 2012, as…

Union technical staff have organised the first-ever international multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) course on the shortened nine-month treatment regimen in Cameroon in April 2016.

The Union has been using an operational research method to test this shortened…

The TB-Free India campaign hosted a two-day interactive workshop in April in New Delhi to empower cured tuberculosis (TB) patients to share  their personal stories and experiences to advocate for better TB prevention, treatment and care in India.

The workshop,…

A Union led pilot project in India - which uses web-based software to provide real time case reporting and treatment adherence support to TB patients treated in the private sector - has reported that 95 percent of patients under the project are adhering to treatment.

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