Yesterday…

We've had an excellent first day! It was a privilege to have the Honourable Minister of Health inaugurate the conference, along with Kedar Sthapit, a young man with TB.

The comments made by Dr Bill Pigott, WHO country represen-tative, were particularly pertinent, and we will include them in the conference report, and also load them on our web page.

Following the inauguration, the Minister sent a message greeting by e-mail to our other participants around the world.

The first presentation was by Dr Shimao, president of the Japan Anti TB Association. In his "View from the Summit" presentation he gave a broad overview of the global TB situation and challenged us to think about elimination and eradication goals in developing countries.

We then heard from Neil Hamlet about the INF TB Control Programme, supporting govern-ment services in Nepal. Then in the afternoon we broke into two groups to look at various issues. Ria Grant and Aiden Keyes helped us to look at TB in disadvantaged communities, Elgin Saha and Dirgh Singh Bam covered government and NGO relation-ships, Katsunori Osuga facilitated a session in which participants shared their experiences of health education and advocacy, Santa Tamang presented the work of Save the Children in TB control with refugees, and Andrew Edwards talked about TB control from a hospital base.

So a very busy, but a fruitful, first day!

…and Today

We begin today with a very important session. Professor Donald Enarson of the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases will review global TB control strategies. In the second session of the morning we will hear from Akramul Islam about the community based approach to TB control used by BRAC in Bangladesh. We continue with the theme of community involvement in TB control, as Anne Horgheim tells us about the experience of a patient's organisation involved in the fight against TB - the Norwegian Heart and Lung Association. The choice of issues for discussion is wide today, and most relate to community involvement in TB control… "Doing DOTS" will look at different approaches to supervising treat-ment from around the world. The Deadly Duet of TB + HIV also receive our attention in an open session chaired by Ria Grant from South Africa. Tell us of your experiences in this important area. Alternatively, you can discuss ways of increasing case finding with Mohamed Akhtar who will be sharing the experiences of the Britain Nepal Medical Trust with us. The final session offers a difficult choice - in the Main Hall, Elizabeth Fair will be discussing the issue of Gender and TB, while in Hall 2 Dr Sadutshang will talk about MDRTB, based on his experience with the Tibetan community, in Dharmasala, India. Have a great day!

Today's Programme

09:00-10:30 Tools for the fight Global TB Control Strategies

Presenter: Professor D Enarson, IUATLD

Facilitator: Ms M Klouman, LHL

10:30-11:00 Tea/Coffee Break

11:00-12:30 Working at the Grass Roots Community based TB Control

Presenter: Mr A Islam, BRAC

Facilitator: Dr T Shimao, JATA

12:30-14:00 Lunch Break, tbNET Resource Centre Visits

14:00-15:00 Main Hall

By the People, for the People Patient's Organisations

Presenter: Ms A Horgheim, LHL

Facilitator: Mr E Saha, HEED

Hall 2: Doing DOTS Experiences with supervised treatment

Presenter: Dr I Smith, UMN

Facilitator: Dr N Hamlet, INF

15:00-16:00 Main Hall

The Deadly Duet TB and HIV

Facilitator: Ms R Grant, TCC

Hall 2: Cured!-What Next? Increasing Case Finding

Presenter: Dr M Akhtar, BNMT

Facilitator: John Pender Smith

16:00-16:30 Tea/Coffee Break

16:30-17:30 Main Hall

Where are the Women? TB and Gender

Presenter: Ms E Fair, BRAC

Hall 2: Multi drug resistance

Presenter: Dr T D Sodutshang, Delek Hospital

Speaker's Corner

We have some speakers! Dr Wesley from India, and Dr Kumar from the SAARC TB Centre will be telling us what they think today.

You too can take part. If you have something to say to challenge us with; to report on; to share - please take this opportunity. Tell Ian Smith, and we will book you for 5 minutes before the morning sessions.

Please remember though - only 5 minutes!

Around the World

Messages and comments by e-mail are flooding in from participants around the world. We have heard from people in Indonesia, Tokyo, Liverpool, Geneva, Madras, and even from 2 kilometres away in Kathmandu! We are giving their comments to the facilitators for the sessions, to be included in the discussions.

And we have 15 countries represented amongst us have in the conference - Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Japan, Indonesia, Australia, South Africa, America, Canada, Norway, Holland, UK, Germany and Italy. We're quite a crowd.

Writing on the wall

Have you written anything on our board yet - please add your comments, messages etc. We've received quite a few from friends around the world. Here are a few samples:

This has reference to your e-mail inviting us to participate in the tbNET 97. We at the Tuberculosis Research Centre, have some experience with NGOs and Tuberculosis and would like to share the same with the participants.

Dr P R Narayan

Director, Tuberculosis Research Centre, Madras

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Just a note of congratulations! Your work to use the INTERNET and to put a global community together in this way is a superb effort. Best of luck to you in coming days.

Richard Bumgarner

Global TB Programme, WHO

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Have a wonderful time!

Mike Popkiss

South Africa