HU in collaboration with Federal MoH and Sidama region health bureau hosts the 16th TB Research Annual Conference (TRAC) and the 2022 World TB Day commemoration.
Hawassa University in collaboration with Federal Ministry of Health and Sidama regional health bureau hosts the 16th TB Research Annual Conference (TRAC) and the 2022 World TB Day commemoration with a theme “Invest to End TB. Save Lives!” from March22-24/2022 at Hawassa University African Union Hall.
Dr. Ayano Beraso, president of Hawassa University, said in his welcoming speech that to host this event that links the academicians, researchers, donors (fund raisers), policy makers and practitioners is a remarkable opportunity for the university. He added that the conference plays a significant role as a platform of discussion and showing ways forward in curbing the problems caused by TB in Ethiopia and beyond. The president also remarked that the conference creates a very important linkage among researchers, donors, policy makers and practitioners to share knowledge and experiences to control TB and with this experience, Hawassa University is learning on how to bring different actors on issues of priority and exchange resources to bring about real change.
Dr. Ayele Teshome, State Minister at Ministry of Health, stated in his opening remarks that the national TB response is presently faced with multi-faceted challenges and massive pressure from the continued COVID-19 pandemic, draught affecting large size of population, significant health services’ destruction and population displacement due to the protracted war and armed conflicts in the country. However, he mentioned the fact that the country is highly committed to control and progressively eliminate TB with combined efforts from different actors on the problem.
The state minister later announced the third edition of the ‘national TB research roadmap’ which he said is an expression of the government’s continued commitment to end TB by implementing evidence-informed policy actions and introducing the latest global policies, strategies and best practices in TB prevention and care.
Dr. Esther Mary Aceng on behalf of WHO representative in Ethiopia said that Ethiopia is making progress in the fight to End TB. She mentioned that Ethiopia is among the few countries that achieved the global 2020 milestone of reducing TB incidence rate by 20%, and said we must invest in the good practice and bridge the gaps in finding new TB cases, reducing drug resistant and TB deaths.
Several partners and stakeholders on a national, regional and global level have participated in this annual research conference in addition to the researchers who presented their findings to the scientific audience and policy makers. Accordingly, TB control program officials from neighboring east African countries of Eritrea, Kenya, South Sudan and Somaliland as well as global actors such as WHO, USAID, CDC Africa, CDC Ethiopia, AHRI, representatives of all regional states’ health bureaus in Ethiopia, 16 plus Ethiopian public universities, and other research institutes and NGOs working on eliminating TB were present during the conference.
During the two days’ research conference, participants made panel discussions on TB research roadmap, TB-related issues and research findings presented orally and via poster. There were also meetings on the side among participants from neighboring countries on issues of TB and other cross-border problems across east Africa.
The third day, March 24, 2022, was entirely allocated for the commemoration of the 2022 World TB Day whereby different programs were presented on TB case’s awareness creation, directions on future actions, and finally best abstract award was given for three best researchers. There was also an award and recognition ceremony for different organizations, researchers, individuals, actors and institutions for their unreserved support to make the conference successful.
