Challenges and Opportunities in the Fight against Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis: Lessons from IOM Workshops

Featuring

Gail Cassell
Visiting Professor, Department of Social Medicine and Global Medicine
Harvard Medical School
Vice President
TB Drug Discovery of the Infectious Disease Research Institute in Seattle

Host

Amanda Glassman
Director of Global Health Policy and Senior Fellow
Center for Global Development

The increasing burden of drug-resistant tuberculosis introduces new challenges to traditional TB control and treatment programs, and calls upon the global health community to collaborate in new and different ways. From 2008 to 2013, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) convened six public workshops on the science and policy surrounding drug-resistant tuberculosis. The issues discussed ranged from biology, epidemiology, and surveillance to diagnosis, treatment, and infection control as well as the drug supply chain and needs of vulnerable populations. Dr. Gail Cassell, chair of the planning committee convening the IOM workshops, will present the themes, challenges, and opportunities emerging from the IOM initiative and discuss potential global actions and next steps to combat DR TB.