USYD designated as WHO Collaborating Centre for Tuberculosis
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has appointed the Marie Bashir Institute for Infectious Diseases and Biosecurity at the University of Sydney as a WHO Collaborating Centre for Tuberculosis (TB). The WHO ""聽(2016-35) articulates a visionary framework for accelerating the decline of TB incidence, mortality and its socio-economic impact as a part of its .
As聽a聽designated聽Tuberculosis聽Collaborating Centre聽in the聽Western Pacific region, the Institute will provide the collaborative framework for research that is essential聽to support the global聽TB elimination strategy聽and more specifically to reach聽the End TB聽targets聽in our region; including Australia. Research collaboration will include聽strong linkage with National TB programmes in Vietnam and the Pacific, as well as international groups such as the Korean Institute of Tuberculosis, the Japanese Research Institute of Tuberculosis (RIT/JATA) and the McGill International TB Centre in Canada.
The research we are undertaking spans from new insights into the biology of TB through to the scale-up of innovative new strategies to detect and prevent TB. The Collaborating Centre will share new knowledge about TB to benefit patients and communities across the Indo-Pacific region.
The centre aims to organise its work into two distinct themes. The first is Find and Treat, which is centred around developing efficient active TB case-finding strategies, reducing cross-border spread, particularly into Australia, introducing new models of care and influencing policy. The second is Prevent, which focuses on household contact and community screening processes, developing more robust public health responses, and improving the efficacy of vaccination.
The centre will be headed by Professor聽Ben Marais聽and Associate Professor聽Greg Fox.
Dr Marais is a paediatrician and paediatric infectious diseases specialist with an interest in global health. He is internationally renowned for his work on childhood and multi drug-resistant (MDR)-tuberculosis (TB).聽He serves on the executive committee of the聽聽and聽is co-director of the Marie Bashir Institute for Infectious Diseases and Biosecurity (MBI).
Dr Fox is a respiratory physician, epidemiologist and clinical trialist committed to using research to improve health care among disadvantaged populations. His research focuses on detection and prevention of tuberculosis (TB) ranging from community-wide cluster randomised trials and clinical trials to meta-analysis and evidence-based policy development. He is a NHMRC Career Development Fellow and leads a number of NHMRC-supported trials relating to tuberculosis and lung disease in Vietnam.
This Collaboration Centre designation comes just over a year after University of Sydney researchers聽聽candidate, using a genetically altered form of the well-known BCG vaccine.