OREANDA-NEWS. April 22, 2010. The first international scientific and practical conference for students, young scientists and specialists, I Can Stop TB, opened at the State Medical University of Gomel on 22 April. The conference is part of the UNDP-Healthcare Ministry of Belarus Grant of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria “Support of the State Programme, Tuberculosis, in the Republic of Belarus”.

Attending the two-day conference are almost 200 medical students and specialists who study the major areas of TB preventive measures and treatment in Belarus.

Head of the Global Fund grants in Belarus Marina Dotsenko noted that “tuberculosis is one of the most socially important issues of the healthcare system. A well-coordinated work of the Healthcare Ministry, the Interior Ministry, the World Health Organization and the UN Development Programme gives a unique opportunity to unite these efforts in a fight against this disease”.

The campaigns conducted with the use of the Global Fund grant will help improve the quality of diagnostics and treatment of HIV-associated and multi-drug resistant tuberculosis which remains to be one of the most serious problems of phthisiology worldwide. There has been developed social support for patients undergoing antituberculosis therapy.

According to Deputy Chairman of the Gomel oblast executive committee Piotr Kirichenko, over the past two decades the Gomel oblast has been facing a tense epidemiological situation with HIV-associated tuberculosis in the lead.

The participants of the conference drew special attention to the most important problems of Belarus such as multi-drug resistant and HIV-associated tuberculosis, infection control, tuberculosis bacteriodiagnosis, additional post-graduate training for young specialists.

The conference included two video-bridges: Gomel-Vladimir and Gomel-Riga with the experts of the WHO international education center.

The conference is set to adopt a resolution before closing on 23 April.