Treatment Action Group (TAG), APCASO,  and Diagnostics Equity Consortium (DEC) hosted a two-part webinar series exploring the evolving TB diagnostic landscape and strategies to increase TB testing coverage, with a specific focus on the South-East Asia and Western-Pacific regions.

The first session, ‘Maximizing the Impact of Emerging TB Diagnostics’, was held on March 5, 2025 and covered the current TB testing gap, and the latest tools and strategies with potential to drive change in the region and beyond.

The session was moderated by Mangala Namasivayam, Program Manager, APCASO, and the featured speakers were:

• Patricia Hall-Eidson, Diagnostics Team Lead, WHO Global TB Program
• Morten Ruhwald, Director, Tuberculosis Programme, FIND
• Florita Dalida, TB Heals Patient Alliance, Philippines
• Sharonann Lynch, Co-Director, Center for Global Health Policy and Politics, O’Neill Institute

The second session, ‘Which Tests and Where?’, was held on March 19, 2025, and focused on optimizing the placement of TB diagnostic tools within national diagnostics networks to reach more people. The speakers explored the placement and distribution of TB tests given test specifications, health system requirements, and community preferences.

The session was moderated by Mangala Namasivayam, Program Manager, APCASO, and the speakers were:

• Grania Bridgen, Senior TB Advisor, The Global Fund
• Mahfuzur Rahman, Chief of Staff, IRD Global, Bangladesh
• Tejaswini (Teju) Dharmapuri Vachaspathi, TB Project Associate, TAG

The Speed-Up, Scale-Up TB Testing Series are part of a larger collaborative effort between TAG and DEC to capacitate civil society representatives to participate in Global Fund-hosted regional discussions with National TB Programs, lab managers, and other stakeholders that will inform the introduction of new near point of care sample types and tests. The first of these Global Fund-hosted regional meetings was held during the annual African Society for Laboratory Medicines (ASLM) meeting in November 2024 – the Speed Up, Scale-Up TB Testing Webinar Series to prepare civil society representatives from the African region to participate in the 2024 Global Fund and ASLM regional meeting is available here.