Overview

The ASTMH Annual Meeting draws tropical medicine and global health professionals representing academia, government, non-profits, philanthropy, NGOs, industry, military and private practice. The meeting is designed for researchers, professors, government and public health officials, military personnel, travel clinic physicians, practicing physicians in tropical medicine, students and all health care providers working in the fields of tropical medicine, hygiene and global health. The Annual Meeting is a five-day educational conference that includes four pre-meeting courses and draws approximately 4,400 attendees.

There are several presentations under the category, “Pneumonia, Respiratory Infections and Tuberculosis.” Plus, researchers from the International Vaccine Access Center will be presenting at ASTMH.

Visit the event website for the registration brochure, online program planner, and more.

Spotlight: Pneumonia Symposium

“Key elements for improving management of pneumonia in children in resource poor settings.”

Chair: Kevin Baker, Programme Coordinator for Pneumonia Diagnostics at the Malaria Consortium
Organizer: Malaria Consortium
When: November 15, 10am-12pm
Where: room Marquis D

Description:
Pneumonia still remains the number one killer of children in the world, and therefore addressing pneumonia is a key component in achieving the target for Sustainable Development Goal 3.2: “by 2030, end preventable deaths of newborns and children under 5 years of age.” While timely case management with oral antibiotics for mild pneumonia and oxygen therapy for severe pneumonia could save many lives, there is often an apparent lack of these tools, in addition to good diagnostics, for effective management of pneumonia in resource poor settings.

The objective of this symposium is to share learning and enhance global understanding of how to improve pneumonia case management in resource poor settings from a number of innovative studies recently conducted.

Malaria Consortium, with funding from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, has recently conducted a large-scale evaluation of new pneumonia diagnostic tools in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia that could improve the responsiveness of the health system in detecting pneumonia at the community level. UNICEF Supply Division is also running a project called ARIDA – again focused on supporting the development and introduction at scale of improved diagnostic devices for pneumonia.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have been focused on supporting a number of initiatives to improve the overall management of pneumonia in resource poor settings. One such instance is their support of this work with the Federal Ministry of Health in Ethiopia. The symposium will outline the experiences from these organizations and provide learnings gained through their activities across different geographical locations. Four key areas have been identified to be discussed in the symposium.

Agenda:

Topic 1: Progress towards universal access to pneumonia treatment
Dr. Ebenezer Sheshi Baba, Malaria Consortium

• A short overview will be given on the broader environmental and structural implications driving the need for improvements in the management of pneumonia in these settings.

Topic 2: Findings from the evaluation of accuracy and acceptability of pneumonia diagnostic tools for community health workers in low and middle income countries
Kevin Baker, Malaria Consortium

• An overview of the significant research findings will then be provided based on both the qualitative and quantitative research stages of the Malaria Consortium pneumonia diagnostics project.

Topic 3: ARIDA project – results of the financial modelling detailing the benefits of the introduction of improved pneumonia diagnostics tools
Kristoffer Gandrup-Marino, UNICEF

• UNICEF will highlight their work done on modeling the financial impact of better diagnostic tools.

Topic 4: Health system strengthening for better pneumonia case management – an Ethiopia case study
Dr. Hillena Kebede, Child Health Case Team Coordinator, Maternal and Child Health Unit, Federal Ministry of Health, Ethiopia

• The public health implications and more specific programmatic applications for the improved management of pneumonia in a specific setting, Ethiopia, will then be discussed.

Moderated Discussion
Madeleine Marasciulo, Malaria Consortium