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[ Click here to listen or download the podcast ] This webinar for media was held on 30th November 2016 featuring experts from the AIDS Society of India; People's Health Organisation; and the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union); who shared why TB and HIV collaborative activities are so critically important to help the world end TB and AIDS both by 2030. [ Click here to listen or download the podcast ]

Shobha Shukla, CNS ( Citizen News Service) [ Watch this video interview ] [ Listen or download the audio podcast ] Mahatma Gandhi had once said, "If I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning". Gandhi's thought resurfaced after listening to Dr Ishwar Gilada , President of AIDS Society of India (ASI). He could not have been more sincere in demanding action to the fullest to #end AIDS by 2030 as promised by our governments. Fragmented actions in silos and scattered across sectors are just not enough to build up the pace on the ground to help governments keep this promise to #endAIDS. At the 2015 UN General Assembly, our governments had committed to end AIDS, TB and malaria by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Dr Ishwar Gilada spoke with CNS (Citizen News Service) at the sidelines of the 9th National Conference of AIDS Society of India (ASICON 2016). This interview is p

Shobha Shukla - CNS (Citizen News Service) An estimated 300 million people are living with asthma worldwide with an additional 100 million new cases expected to be added by 2025. WHO estimates that 15 million disability adjusted life years (DALYs) are lost annually because of this chronic disease that kills an estimated 250,000 people annually. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) hold the promise of reducing deaths from non-communicable diseases (NCDs) by one third by 2030 - a tall order indeed, as far as asthma is concerned. Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) guidelines say that asthma management should be based on achieving and maintaining complete asthma control. But an increasing body of evidence suggests that asthma is under-treated and uncontrolled in many parts of the world. Achieving good control of asthma will lead to fewer exacerbations and is also associated with less airway inflammation. Good control will require stepping up treatment, especially in those patients wh

[ Listen or download this podcast ] One of the most recognized Indian film-stars globally, 60 years old Anil Kapoor, was made the Grand Ambassador for Clean Air and Healthy Lungs at the 18th National Conference on Pulmonary Diseases (NAPCON 2016). Emeritus Director Professor (Dr) KC Mohanty, Chairman of NAPCON 2016 and Dr Ishwar Gilada, Co-Chairman of NAPCON 2016 and President of AIDS Society of India, appealed to Bollywood film-icon to bolster the cause of clean air and healthy lungs. Anil Kapoor is perhaps one of the most fit and healthy actors in the film industry and a champion advocate for health. [ Listen or download this podcast ]

[ Listen or download the podcast ] Dr Ishwar Gilada is among the first medical doctors who came forward to care for people living with HIV in India. Success breeds complacency and complacency may breed failure. Dr Gilada calls on NOT letting off our feet from gas pedal and instead keep striving hard to keep the promise to end AIDS by 2030 (Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs).This interview is part of CNS Inspire Series . [ Listen or download the podcast ]

[ Listen or download this podcast ] CNS spoke with Governor of Nagaland, Shri PB Acharya, on lung diseases in India, and priority lung health issues in Nagaland state. He spoke with CNS (Citizen News Service) on the sidelines of the 18th National Conference on Pulmonary Diseases (NAPCON 2016) in Mumbai, India. [ Listen or download this podcast ]. He exhorted doctors to be socially responsible and be genuine partners to ensure health justice for all, especially for those in rural areas and marginalized communities. [ Listen or download this podcast ]

Shobha Shukla, CNS (Citizen News Service) Alarming rates of pulmonary diseases in India are warranting urgent action as well as well-coordinated and inter-sectoral comprehensive health responses across the country to ensure every citizen enjoys lung health. "Recent smog in parts of north-central India had worsened the air quality in a dangerous manner sending lives of people in jitters and leaving behind disproportionately high economic impact. Emergency public health measures must be in place because healthy lungs are an indispensable need if we want a healthy country" said Director Professor (Dr) KC Mohanty , Organizing Chairman of 18th Joint National Conference on Pulmonary Diseases (NAPCON 2016) in Mumbai, India. NAPCON 2016 is organized by India’s two eminent professional associations: National College of Chest Physicians (India) and Indian Chest Society, and has scientific or educational collaboration with the Tuberculosis Association of India, Environmental Medic

Shobha Shukla, CNS (Citizen News Service) [ Watch this video interview ] [ Listen or download the audio podcast ] Success breeds complacency and complacency breeds failure. When the number of people affected by a disease decreases, there is a tendency to disregard it as a public health problem. Even as the HIV/AIDS epidemic is on the decline in India, we have to intensify, and not dilute, our efforts to have virtual elimination of the disease, emphasised Dr Raman R Gangakhedkar , Director-in-charge at National AIDS Research Institute (NARI), Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). He spoke with CNS (Citizen News Service) at the sidelines of the 9th National Conference of AIDS Society of India (ASICON 2016). This interview is part of CNS Inspire series – featuring people who have decades of experience in health and development, and learning from them what went well and not-so-well and how can these learnings shape the responses for sustainable development over the next decade.

FCTC Art.19 expert Daniel Dorado, Corporate Accountability International Daniel Dorado a senior technical expert on WHO FCTC Article 19 delivering his intervention at the seventh Conference of the Parties to the World Health Organization (7th COP to WHO FCTC) in India: 7th November 2016. Click here to listen or download this podcast in Spanish . Daniel is part of the Corporate Accountability International team onsite.  He spoke in Spanish. He hails from Columbia and lives in Ecuador. His work is also a living tribute to the invaluable legacy he holds close to his heart: he is the son of tireless human rights crusader and tobacco control leader Yul Francisco Dorado from Columbia. Yul was Latin America Director of Corporate Accountability International.

Shobha Shukla, Citizen News Service - CNS [ Read presentation of Prof Jeff Collin ] Governments of over 180 countries that have ratified the global tobacco treaty had met recently earlier this month and adopted and advanced strong measures to stop tobacco industry interference in health policy and also to hold tobacco industry liable.The meeting formally called the Seventh Conference of the Parties to the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) concluded with commendable progress on WHO FCTC Articles 5.3 and 19 (liability). In this context, I find it pertinent to share some of the learnings from the 47th Union World Conference on Lung Health that was held in Liverpool last month. Reality check on policy coherence Dr Jeff Collin , Professor of Global Health Policy at the University of Edinburgh, gave some interesting insights by exploring the dark nexus between industry and public health policies; and raised the issue of tackling conflict of interes

[ Watch webinar recording ] [ Listen or download the audio podcast ] In lead up to World AIDS Day 2016 let us recollect governments' promise to end AIDS and TB by 2030. But TB continues to be a lead killer for people living with HIV. What more needs to happen to meet SDGs by 2030? [ Watch webinar recording ] | [ Listen or download the audio podcast ] Date: Wednesday, 30th November 2016 Time: 1pm - 2pm Geneva time (To convert to different time zones, click here or go to www.timeanddate.com/worldclock ) The WHO Global TB Report 2016 shows increase (not decrease) in TB cases and TB deaths. Rate of TB decline is majorly falling short to end TB by 2030. TB continues to be a lead cause of death for people living with HIV. TB being curable and preventable, this is unacceptable ! 47th Union World Conference on Lung Health had key messages around TB HIV. Learn more from experts in this webinar. Unless TB and HIV affected communities are central to health responses, we will fail to meet

Alice Sagwidza-Tembe, CNS Correspondent, Swaziland Coming back from the 47th Union World Conference on Lung Health held in Liverpool in October 2016, it is time to reflect upon the myriad advancements and debates to better the quality of care for people with TB—shortening the treatment schedule for multi drug resistant TB (MDR-TB), addressing the otherwise forgotten groups like adolescents, celebrities opening up about having lived with TB, and plenty more on fresh approaches to end the epidemic. An interesting, but not so new aspect crept into every discussion—the socio-economic issues that dampen efforts to stop TB and that begged the question: Are national TB programmes responsible for eradicating poverty to ensure effectiveness of the TB treatment therapy? Speaking with Dr Samson Haumba , the Country Director at the University Research Company in Swaziland, he expressed, “The socio-economic needs of the patient are critical to the intervention. However, the National TB programme b

Shobha Shukla, Citizen News Service - CNS TB is still largely considered a poor man’s disease and is generally associated with the socially disadvantaged people living in low and middle income countries. But the story of Liam Joel Taylor proves that, being an air borne infection, TB can strike anyone anywhere. 31 years old Liam neither lives in a developing country, nor does he come from an economically or socially disadvantaged class. He lives near Liverpool and his father is a lecturer in South American Studies. In 2011, after doing his Masters in Environment and Development he went to South America to do some work on water pollution. Unfortunately the job fell through while he was there. Then he, along with his girl friend, spent around 7 months travelling to Peru, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Columbia, and Ecuador. On his return to UK he got a job at a hospital. But two weeks later he started to get ill. “I started getting recurrent pain, especially on lifting heavy things or whi

[ Click here to listen or download this podcast ] Dr Raman R Gangakhedkar , Director in-charge of National AIDS Research Institute of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has worked on HIV since 1989, few years after first case got diagnosed in India. He has played a key role in shaping India's health policy on a range of aspects related to HIV care and management. [ Click here to listen or download this podcast ]

Alice Sagwidza-Tembe, CNS Correspondent, Swaziland It is essential that any healthcare program in its advancement does not forget the population for whom it is  developed. At the recent 47th Union World Conference on Lung Health with the theme of ‘Confronting resistance: Fundamentals to innovations’, countries shared interesting food for thought and unique advanced approaches to people focused quality care for innovative management of MDR-TB. For an extended period of time we have had the directly observed treatment short-course (DOTS) for TB patients, in which healthcare workers observe patients as they take their medicines. It introduced task shifting, a concept that was first met with hesitancy by mostly healthcare workers and the general population at large. But it remains an internationally recommended highly efficient and cost-effective strategy for TB control. However, noting the increase in the number of patients that need to be directly observed and the limited space to hou