For two days in Wellington in August 2018, researchers, clinicians, practitioners and policy makers will gather for a conference focused on tuberculosis.

Tuberculosis (TB) remains a cause of high health burden worldwide. TB is ranked as one of the top 10 contributors to mortality worldwide - in 2015, 1.8 million deaths were due to TB. Over 1200 new cases occur in Australia and 300 in New Zealand annually.

We are also in a time of change in TB: increasing frequency of multidrug resistance, greater migration from countries with high TB burden, new diagnostic techniques, treatments, and tools for understanding TB epidemiology all create an imperative for building capacity and enhancing skills among the TB control healthcare workforce.

The 2018 Australasian Tuberculosis Conference is therefore timely. We expect to receive registration from approximately 200 delegates, primarily from New Zealand and Australia, who will join together to debate and discuss new areas of TB science, learn new techniques and practices, and develop networks to better improve and coordinate TB management across the region.

We expect that the conference will appeal to professionals involved in all aspects of tuberculosis management: clinical care (investigation, diagnosis, treatment); occupational health; infection control; public health; policy and guideline development; immigration; laboratory science and research.

 Conference themes

• TB elimination in low burden countries.
• The dawn of the Whole Genome Sequencing era and application to TB diagnosis and control.
• TB and migration.
• Drug resistance and TB - diagnosis, management, epidemiology and future projections.
• TB vaccine development.
• Latent tuberculosis infection testing, diagnosis and treatment.
• Tuberculosis and diabetes.
                        

Confirmed speaker

Dr Timothy Walker, John Radcliffe Hospital, University of Oxford will be speaking on application of whole genome sequencing to tuberculosis control.

Dates and venue

The Australasian Tuberculosis Conference 2018 will be held from Thursday 30 August to Friday 31 August 2018 at the Te Papa Museum, Wellington, New Zealand. The museum is within walking distance from major hotels.

Contact details

This conference is facilitated by Regional Public Health, Hutt Valley District Health Board, Lower Hutt, New Zealand.

Phone: 04 570 9002 (Reception)

Email: RPH@huttvalleydhb.org.nz

Go to www.tbconference.org to register your interest.

This is a great opportunity to share your knowledge. We will be calling for abstracts early in the new year.