The COVID-19 pandemic had briefly displaced Tuberculosis (TB), as the world’s leading infectious killer disease. TB services, immensely affected during the pandemic, are struggling to regain normalcy. The question that persists, however, is if simply resuming services as usual is enough?
Globally, TB services were adversely affected leading to significant pain and suffering. In India, where the burden of TB is the highest, and health inequities are rampant, the lack of access to TB services highlighted yet again the urgency of making TB care and services equitable and accessible.
About the Summit
As we learn to deal with COVID 19 pandemic, it has become urgent to assess how we can redesign TB services so that they remain available, equitable, accessible and affordable for the most vulnerable. This pandemic has brought us to a crossroads where we are faced with the opportunity to reimagine TB care and services and consider how we can make them more equitable and accessible. In order for this to happen, we need to regroup and revitalise discussions on addressing India’s TB epidemic.
This can only be done through a national forum, such as this Summit, that refocuses on the issues and challenges in TB care in India through TB survivor and expert-led discussions, and offers diverse, inclusive perspectives on dealing with these challenges.
The India TB Summit 2022 is a virtual public summit led and curated by TB experts and survivors. This virtual summit will focus on critical issues in TB in India to discuss key challenges with regard to the TB epidemic in India from diverse perspectives. In doing so, it will examine possible solutions, innovations and create an informed and nuanced public narrative on TB and the existing challenges in TB care in India. The theme for the summit this year is Redesigning TB Care for Equity and Access.
The summit is an attempt to curate informative and accessible dialogues and discussions to explore the key issues in TB care from diverse, inclusive and nuanced perspectives to increase public and policy understanding about TB in India and to redesign TB care in India to make it more equitable and accessible.
About SATB
Survivors Against TB is a community-based collective of TB survivors, advocates and experts working on TB and related comorbidities. The advocates and experts have significant experience working in medicine, public health, and with communities. Based on this knowledge SATB advocates with key stakeholders on various issues such as diagnosis, treatment, access to new drugs, adherence, nutrition, mental health, stigma, and gender, for the changes necessary to make TB care more equitable, accessible and person-centered in India. https://survivorsagainsttb.com/En/
Pi Consulting is an India based research, advocacy and communications organization that specializes in the areas of strategy development, communications, advocacy and media engagement. With a grounding in evidence-based approaches, research and a strong influence of the creative arts, the group works to bring innovative approaches to analysis, problem solving and solution development in the areas of health and development. www.piconsulting.in
About Pi Consulting
Chair's Address
Dear colleagues and partners,
It is my pleasure to invite you to join us at the Second Edition of the India TB Summit, hosted in partnership with The Indian Express. The summit is in response to the challenges that we have witnessed over the last two years in fighting and controlling TB amidst the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The focus is not just on therapeutics, but also it’s availability, affordability and accessibility. There is an urgent need to examine if our current tools and approaches are enough to ensure that TB Care is accessible to all. The time has come for all of us to come together and collectively rethink and reimagine TB care in India. Hence the summit theme is Redesigning TB Care for Equity and Access
As always, the Summit will bring together leading national and global experts, survivors, advocates to lead the discussions and the sub themes of the event. Committed to serving communities first, every aspect of this Summit has been developed with inputs from survivors. Also, every panel has been independently curated by the chairs to ensure academic rigor and independence. The Summit’s theme has also been co-developed by the academic committee led by experts and community representatives.
In a two-day rigorous programme, the Summit will bring together communities, experts, clinicians and public health workers, health policymakers, researchers and advocates. Through these efforts, we hope to engage in inclusive discussions, combine diverse perspectives and create awareness through an independent public discourse around TB. We are extremely grateful to our Academic Committee as also our Chairs who have, despite their exacting schedules and timelines, curated a robust and thought provoking program ensuring diverse participation and perspectives. We are also grateful to our supporters who continue to understand and effortlessly support the value of an inclusive national forum such as this Summit on TB.
We welcome you to the summit again and look forward to your participation in it.
Chapal Mehra,
Summit Chair
