Dr Bertie Squire, Reader in Clinical Tropical Medicine and co-manager of the Centre for Research on Equity and Systems for TB and HIV/AIDS (CRESTHA) at LSTM, has been elected President of The International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease.
Bertie carried out his first public duties at the 39th World Conference on Lung Health in Paris on the theme of ‘Health Systems Responses to Threats to Global Lung Health’. The next World Conference will be held in Mexico in 2009 on the theme of ‘Poverty and Lung Health’.
Bertie joined LSTM in 1995 from the Kamuzu Central Hospital in Lilongwe, Malawi, where he headed the Department of Medicine. Since then he has built up a collaborative TB research programme with colleagues in many countries. The focus of his work has been on generating the knowledge required to make TB control services more accessible for the poor. He and his group run the Secretariat of the TB & Poverty Subgroup of the Global STOP-TB Partnership.
IUALTD, known as ‘The Union’, is the only international voluntary scientific organisation that provides a neutral platform to fight TB, HIV, asthma, tobacco and lung disease. It was established in 1920 as a federation of national associations and today provides direct field assistance to over 75 countries, conducts clinical trials and organises international conferences and training courses. For further details about The Union and its work, please visit their website at www.theunion.org.
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