Join us in Amsterdam!

Dear FIND colleagues, partners, friends,

In just a few weeks the AIDS 2018 congress will kick off in Amsterdam, and we warmly invite you to join us at our symposium, chaired by Dr Eric Goosby, UN Special Envoy on Tuberculosis, on Monday 23 June at 8 am: Tackling co-infection with collaboration: can integration of diagnostic services and technologies help maintain critical momentum in infectious disease control? We can no longer afford the human and financial cost of treating HIV as though it exists within a vacuum – in high-burden countries, people living with HIV are all too often concurrently infected with tuberculosis, hepatitis, malaria, a neglected tropical disease, or another STI. This year’s congress will be particularly important as the community continues to prepare for the TB High-Level Meeting in New York in September.

This month saw the publication of a new report quantifying the funding shortfall for basic research and product development in malaria. Bridging the gaps in malaria R&D: an analysis of funding – from basic research and product development to research for implementation was developed by PATH, the WHO Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR), and Malaria No More UK, in collaboration with our team at FIND and other partners. Funding needs are quantified for initial product development as well as for implementation, operational and health systems research.

The annual McGill Summer Institute in Infectious Diseases and Global Health took place in Montreal, and senior FIND staff were once again privileged to join the faculty, led by course director and FIND Scientific Advisory Committee member Professor Madhukur Pai, on advanced TB diagnostics and a special session on antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

We also contributed a diagnostic preparedness perspective to The future of managing outbreaks using digital technologies – our first tweet chat – at the invitation of Vanessa Carter, an AMR patient advocate based in Johannesburg who manages the South Africa chapter of the healthcare social media twitter community (#hcsmSA).

Hope to see you in Amsterdam!

Catharina