ETTi core group members had several meetings in Paris in November, 2023 to report on past and ongoing events and activities, discuss the group priorities, short- and long-term plans, introduce new members, elect new chairs, select the new institution to serve as a supporting group secretariate and update the group ToR. Dr. Suvanand Sahu, Stop TB Partnership, Dr. Avinash Kanchar, WHO Global TB Programme and Dr. Sevim Ahmedov, USAID attended the core group meeting and expressed active support of the group mission and urged it to be more efficient and productive. The common opinion of the meeting was to intensify its activities aimed to promote and advocate for TB and airborne IPC in line with Stop TB Partnership Global Plan priorities:
- implement airborne IPC measures in health care settings and high-risk indoor places where people congregate;
- support community-based and home-based models for delivering TB prevention and care;
- support a multisectoral TB response through stronger partnerships; position the TB response at the centre of pandemic preparedness and response efforts;
- accelerate the development of new tools to prevent TB and other airborne infections by identifying innovative product-development pathways and improving collaboration among actors in product development.
Dr. Grigory Volchenkov, independent TB control and TB IPC consultant, Vladimir, Russia and Dr. Martie van der Walt, South African Medical Research Counsil, Pretoria, South Africa were elected to a 3 year term as ETTi chair and co-chair by majority of votes.
Dr. Carrie Tudor was thanked for her 7 years of leadership of ETTi. She will be available on the Core Group for 1 year during this leadership transition.