SATuRN's tweet coverage about drug resistance at the 3rd SA TB conference


We participated, presented and tweeted about the 3rd South African TB conference, 12-15 June 2012, ICC, Durban. We had covered all the sessions that present TB drug resistance results. Please find below our tweets from our participation in our national TB conference.


SATuRN Tweets at the 3rd SA TB Conference:

14 june 2012

Dr Sheela Shenoi: survival from XDR-TB in Tugela Ferry remains poor. Urgent need for new drugs/regimens #SATB

Lesibana Malinga: second-line drug resistance complex. MTBDRsl assay accuracy not very impressive, especially for injectables #SATB

Anura David: MTBDRplus assay version 2 can detect ~160 bacilli per ml of sputum #SATB

#SATB MARTI presentation: lots of potential! Blood based, potentially poct, better on sm- cases, active disease only, $5 per electrode #TB

#SATB Dr S Charalambous: high rates of undiagnosed #TB in SA prisons but urine LAM v low sensitivity to detect

#SATB Natalie Baylis: in Jo'burg 1/5 rpoB mutants are Rif monorestistant, 1/5 #MDRTB may benefit from high dose INH

#SATB Natalie Baylis: high levels of Strep and EBM resistance in Jo'burg #MDRTB

#SATB Andreas Diacon - "we are very well prepared for the next mouse TB epidemic!" #TB #tuberculosis

HIV-TB-IRIS = TB recurrence and immune damage, can even develop TB-meningitis 2 weeks after ARVs initiation. Prof. Wilkinson #SATB

The three keynotes presentations today were great! #drug development, immunology and diagnostic. All SA research! Follow #SATB

Next up in plenary session is Prof Mark Nicol talking about TB diagnostics #SATB

Next up is Rob Wilkinson with the difficult task of trying to explain TB immunology! #SATB

Prof Diacon: we must develop regimens not single TB drugs! #SATB

Ready for day 2 of #SATB. First up is Andreas Diacon talking about new TB drugs and regimens


13 June 2012

We meet Prof. Paul Van Helden at #SATB He accepted to present SATuRN HIV/TB Drug Resistance workshop, CTICC, 28-29 Nov http://www.bioafrica.net/workshops/7thsaturnresitanceworkshop

Great news to coincide with #satb UNITAID APPROVES US$ 30 MILLION FOR ROLLOUT OF XPERT MTB/RIF AT REDUCED COST http://www.unitaid.eu/resources/news/releases/943-unitaid-approves-us-30-million-for-innovative-project-to-roll-out-ground-breaking-tuberculosis-test-at-reduced-cost

Dr Helen Cox-treating MDR-TB with the existing drugs is extremely difficult. We desperately need new drugs and new regimens! #SATB

South Africa: Deaf or Dead? Better Drugs Needed to Stop #Drug-Resistant #TB http://allafrica.com/stories/201206131046.html #SATB

SATuRN very impressed that #drugresistance is one of the main topics at #SATB Many interesting talks starting with Prof. van Helden talk...

Depression is a cause and consequence of failing #arvs and anti-TB medicine. How to deal with this? SATuRN @drug_resistance question #satb

#MDR #TB treatment can generate psychosis in patients, interesting talk by Ms Ana Kelly at #SATB

Stavudine still an option in HIV-infected patients with MDR-TB. Seems that peripheral neuropathy not a huge problem in the short-term #SATB

Fantastic discussion on the operationalising of #Xpert MTB/RIF session at #SATB great to learn on real world implementation!

Dr. Helen Cox - as more we use #Xpert more discrepancy #MDR results we will find, but the most we will learn... #SATB

Thanks @TAC for following us, we are very proud of your great work!

Lots of interesting questions for Dr. Lessels on implementation of #xpert at rural setting #SATB

Positioning at clinic #Xpert allows start of treatment quicker than if at lab. Good for patients but more staff need training #SATB

Go Dr. Richard Lessells ! 2 talks in different sessions at the same time, run, run...

Randomized trial #tb #Xpert rural #SouthAfrica - median CD4 of HIV individuals is 270. Good news Patients testing early! Dr. Lessells #SATB

Preliminary results - clinical care is improved when #Xpert is used at rural KZN by Dr. Lessells from @LSHTM_TB

Operational feasibility of #xpert MTB/Rif in rural primary health care clinic by @rjlessells from @LSHTM_TB at #SATB

Limpopo and Mapumalanga show a high number of #Rif resistance TB strains, maybe a new #MDR outbreak? Mr Ramdin NLHS/NICD at #SATB

NHLS data warehouse for #tb results very important resource for #MDR surveillance in #SouthAfrica. 120,000 drug resistance tests 2011 #SATB

Feasibility and implementation session of #Xpert at #SATB is very interesting. Good to see the how it perform in rural settings.

Lots of presentation on GenXpert in the #SATB conference, however we still need good evaluation trials for #Rif resistance in #SouthAfrica

Need continuous surveillance performance of #Xpert at population level to determine reasons for discrepancy results Dr. Lessels #SATB

Mixed strains/heteroresistance #TB rif resistance are still difficult to detect specially in high #Tb incidence regions #SATB

Eye opening case Dr. Lessells show that false negative #Xpert due to new interpretation rule act > 5. Physicians should read values! #SATB

WHO recommendation to use #xpert on MDR suspects, #SouthAfrica went further and offer for all #tb suspects, Dr. Lessells at #SATB

Very good #LSHTM @rjlessells presentation on #xpert from Hlabisa on discordant results at #SATB

Dr. Aza presentation on the use of #xpert in Mozambique show that advanced AIDS patients that developed #tb have a high xpert result #SATB

Rapid #tb diagnostics are revolutionizing #MDR identification and treatment in #SouthAfrica

about to start the diagnostics and guidelines section, we are exciting to see our colleague @rjlessells presentation at #SATB

South Africa 23% coverage of #GenXpert, more than 50% of tests in the world. Still room to improve, rapid testing is helping to fight #TB

Dr. David Mametja @satb2012 NSP short term plan is to decrease time to treatment to 2 days susceptible #TB and 5 days for #MDR

Dr. David Mametja @satb2012 NSP plan is to increase short term (next 5 years) TB treatment success rates to 90%

Dr. David Mametja @satb2012 TB cure rates have increased in SA now at 73% this is up from less than 50% a few years ago.

Dr. David Mametja @satb2012 - South Africa is number 3 on TB cases but number 1 on burden of TB per population with 940/100,000 TB cases

Paul Van Helden @satb2012 Molecular epidemiology results show that around 60 % of the MDR in South Africa is transmitted.

KwaZulu-Natal responsible for about 30% of all TB cases nationally #SATB

Next plenary is Dr David Mametja talking about the National Strategic Plan #SATB

Excellent presentation by Prof van Helden - really challenging us to focus on transmission rather than latency #SATB

In South Africa the TB epidemic is driven largely by transmission #SATB

Much recurrent TB disease is reinfection rather than relapse #SATB

Need for improved surveillance systems and research for TB and #drugresistance

Dr Nazir Ismail - MDR-TB fairly stable according to NHLS data 2007-2011 #drugresistance

News date: 2012-06-15

Links:

http://www.tbconference.co.za/