Paul Fitzpatrick and Jonathan Curry from the QuantuMDx Team recently had the privilege of attending the 2024 TB Conference in Baltimore in the United States held on the 15th-19th April.
The conference was jointly organized and hosted by the International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease – North America Region (Union-NAR) and National Tuberculosis Coalition of America (NTCA) and attracted a record number of participants (close to 675). There were also a record number of exhibitors and sponsors supporting the event.
QuantuMDx remain committed to developing novel TB diagnostic tools and therefore it was important that our representatives attended to hear the latest developments in the fight against the disease.
TB Topics
The conference program was extremely comprehensive, with many engaging and passionate speakers and excellent presentations from both TB experts and TB survivors. The sessions covered all aspects of the current situation concerning TB in North America, including:
- The current initiatives to STOP TB in the US and Canada.
- New advances in TB diagnosis and treatment.
- Contact investigations.
- Changes to isolation guidelines.
- Challenging clinical cases.
- New approaches to reduce TB amongst many different demographic patient groups.
The conference provided an excellent insight into the approach to TB management in the USA and Canada, whilst raising awareness about the many challenges in efforts to eradicate the disease.
TB-Host Immune Response Assay by QuantuMDx
It was also a fantastic opportunity to meet and make contact with many of the TB key opinion leaders in North America who were very interested to hear about our innovative TB – Host Immune Response Assay (TB-HIRA).
This assay, which measures mRNA transcripts that are associated with TB infection in a single RT-qPCR test from whole blood samples, is also being developed for use on our Q-POC point-of-care system. It was great to discuss how these products can potentially help support the initiatives to stop TB in North America in the future.
