Union World Conference on Lung Health | 31 Oct 2019

The Vice-President of India inaugurated the 50th Union World Conference on Lung Health in Hyderabad on 30th October 2019. It is a four-day scientific programme focusing on every aspect of lung health.

  • The theme of the conference is ‘Ending the Emergency: Science, Leadership, Action’.
    • It focuses on what is needed to ensure commitments become action, and that life-saving targets are met.
    • The conference theme resonates strongly with TB, but it also raises awareness that all threats to lung health – TB, air pollution, tobacco and many more – are emergencies that our science, leadership and action need to meet head-on.
  • This is the world’s largest gathering of stakeholders working to end the suffering caused by lung disease, with a focus specifically on the challenges faced by low-and lower-middle-income populations
  • International Union Against Tuberculosis (IUAT) has been organising this conference since 1920.
  • India provides a unique backdrop for discussions on ending Tuberculosis (TB) and lung disease with the current highest burden of TB in the world, and ambitious targets to eliminate TB by 2025.
  • An agreement was also reached to lower the price of rifapentine. It is a critically important drug used to prevent tuberculosis (TB).

Tuberculosis (TB)

  • It is an infectious disease caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis. It is spread through the air from people suffering from TB.
  • A single patient can infect ten or more people in one year. TB remains a major public health problem in India, with the country accounting for 26% of all TB cases reported globally.
  • In 2011, out of the estimated global annual incidence of 8.8 million TB cases, nearly 2.3 million were estimated to have occurred in India.
  • The Bacillus Calmette–Guérin (BCG) vaccine used for TB was developed by Albert Calmette and Camille Guérin in 1921.

International Union Against Tuberculosis

  • International Union Against Tuberculosis (IUAT) was founded at the post-war conference, held in Paris in 1920.
  • It became the first NGO to be officially recognised by WHO In 1940.
  • The IUAT plays a central role in international clinical trials to determine the best ways to use the new tools for TB treatment and co-founds the TB Surveillance Research Unit.

Source: PIB