India continues to bear the world’s highest tuberculosis (TB) burden, with over 3 lakh deaths estimated in 2023 alone.
Hyderabad:India continues to bear the world’s highest tuberculosis (TB) burden, with over 3 lakh deaths estimated in 2023 alone. At the 14th annual meeting of the RePORT (Regional Prospective Observational Research for Tuberculosis) India Consortium, held at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) here, experts stressed the need to approach TB through people-centred strategies rather than germ-focused models.
The three-day meeting, which will go on until April 12, brought together 115 scientists, clinicians and epidemiologists from India and the United States. Discussions covered a wide range of topics—from immune response variations in different age groups and TB locations in the body to household transmission patterns, new vaccine development and diagnostic tools.
Dr Anurag Bhargava of Yenepoya University, delivering the keynote address, spoke about the need for a rural cohort in TB studies to examine the disease’s links with co-morbidities such as diabetes, anaemia and malnutrition. “TB deaths are predictable and preventable. We need to start looking at the host, not just the pathogen,” he explained.
The RePORT India initiative also supports a bio-repository of biological samples from TB patients, which has facilitated numerous studies over the last decade.
CCMB Director Dr Vinay K. Nandicoori emphasised the need for closer collaboration between basic scientists and clinical researchers. “Disciplinary silos must be dismantled. Tackling TB requires everyone—biologists, clinicians and public health professionals—to work together,” he said.
