To support the global campaign of World Tuberculosis Day, which is an annual event held on March 24 every year, Taiwan CDC is co-hosting the “2008 International Tuberculosis Symposium” along with National Tuberculosis Association and Taipei Municipal Wan Fang Hospital.Many world-renowned experts and scholars coming from the US, the UK, Japan, Korea, and Hong Kong have been invited to participate in this great event.
The major themes of this symposium include development of TB-related laboratory technique and surveillance of TB drug resistance.Scheduled local keynote speakers include Dr. Ruwen Jou from Research & Diagnostic Center, Taiwan CDC, and Dr. Kwen-Tay Luh from National Tuberculosis Association.Their speech titles are “Laboratory Program of Tuberculosis in Taiwan” and “Drug-resistant Tuberculosis in Taiwan,” respectively.In addition, several foreign guests have been invited to participate in the symposium.Dr. Thomas M. Shinnick from US CDC and Dr. Kai-Man Kam from Hong Kong Tuberculosis, Chest and Heart Diseases Association will speak on “Molecular Diagnosis of Drug Resistance of Tuberculosis” and “Current Development of 2nd-line Drug Susceptibility Testing,” respectively.Dr. Woojin Lew from Korea Institute of Tuberculosis will deliver a speech on “Surveillance of Prevalence of Drug Resistant Tuberculosis in Korea,” and Dr. Francis Drobniewski from UK Health Protection Agency will talk about “Molecular Epidemiology of MDR-/XDR-Tuberculosis.Dr. Isamu Sugawara from Japan Anti-Tuberculosis Association (JATA) will give an introduction to “Tuberculosis Vaccine Development.”
In order to contribute to the global commitment of tuberculosis control, Taiwan began participating in the World Tuberculosis Day in 1997.This year, Taiwan co-organized the “2008 International Tuberculosis Symposium” to provide a platform for professional exchange and sharing experiences among different nations.It is hoped that through international joint ventures as such the common goal of reducing the global prevalence of TB can be reached within ten years’ time.