The Adult and Child Lung Health Section includes the following areas of interest:

• Adult Lung Health: including pneumonia, asthma, COPD, air pollution, occupational lung disease and non-communicable diseases (NCDs)
• Child Lung Health: Childhood TB, HIV, childhood pneumonia, other child lung health issues and child lung-related NCDs.

The section is working with other international organisations (such as the WHO and Global Asthma Network) to provide joined-up advocacy for asthma and chronic lung disease.

We are working to amplify voices of those affected by lung disease through speakers and collected videos. We are also writing guidance for clinicians dealing with post-tuberculosis lung disease.

The HIV section, primarily focuses on TB in the context of HIV, individuals who are co-infected with TB and HIV, and individuals with TB who also have other co-morbidities and conditions, including diabetes, hepatitis and drug and alcohol misuse. Despite challenges of conducting in-person membership activities due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the section has maintained a stable membership. 

The tuberculosis (TB) section is the largest section of The Union, and brings together a diverse group of members who share a primary interest in TB prevention and care, and in persons and communities affected by TB worldwide.

The Tobacco Control Section is comprised of Union members who share common professional interests in creating a tobacco free world through active collaborations, dissemination of ideas and demonstration of leadership in policy, practice and scientific research. While upholding The Union’s key traits of quality, innovation, sustainability, the members work closely to organise webinars on varied tobacco control topics of interest to international audience, and assist tobacco control implementers and advocates with policy making in their countries, and contribute to the scientific programme of the Union World Lung Conference. The section works on diverse areas of tobacco control through its two working groups - MPOWER Research Group and the Protecting children from tobacco industry interference in health policies. The Protecting children group has very recently ceased.  

To stay connected and facilitate peer to peer learning, the Tobacco Control section launched an exclusive Facebook Group in 2021 Further, it has established a fully functional virtual Resource Centre for Tobacco Control in India. The resource centre is a hub to all activities related to tobacco control in India and has been accessed by 150,000 users from 80+ countries. Under this centre, two tobacco control courses (Basic-3 months & Advanced- 6 months) were launched to empower and build capacity of professionals in tobacco control (www.elearningforpublichealth.com/courses).

A virtual National Conference on Tobacco or Health (NCTOH), a national summit and many webinars/ national consultations were conducted in India for sharing contextual experiences and best practices in tobacco control to advance tobacco control in India. In series of regular webinars of The Union, the section organized a webinar titled “Scaling up Tobacco Cessation in High-Burden Countries for Eliminating Tuberculosis: Interventions & Way forward.” on World TB Day 2022. The group has recently initiated an Endgame Hub In India in collaboration with group members and in technical support of The Union.

The Nurses and Allied Professionals Sub-section (NAPs) represents nurses, health educators and other allied professionals dedicated to ending TB. The Sub-Section is comprised of members from many disciplines who work across a spectrum of activities, services and organisations with expertise and interests relating to clinical care and public health management of TB and lung disease, tobacco control, training and education to build capacity, health promotion, stigma reduction, disease prevention, civil society, research and ethics. A strength of the group and members is the diversity of knowledge, skills and expertise within their global community of practice.

The TB Bacteriology and Immunology sub-section advocates for the importance of laboratory related research and implementation to detect TB infection and determine drug susceptibility in support of the End TB strategy.

The Zoonotic TB (ZTB) sub-section was formed in the early 2000’s when it became clear that there was a general lack of understanding and attention regarding ZTB by public health and animal health agencies, physicians and veterinarians, politicians, and the general public. It has long been forgotten that Louis Pasteur invented pasteurization in 1862 primarily to prevent the transmission of tuberculosis through contaminated cow milk. Through the hard work of the ZTB Sub-section and new allies in the public and animal health areas, in 2017, The “Roadmap for Zoonotic TB” was launched by the World Health Organization, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the World Organisation for Animal Health, and The International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease. The “Roadmap” is a policy document that addresses the major health and economic impacts of this disease, prioritizing collation of scientific evidence, providing methodologies for reducing transmission at the animal-human interface, and strengthening collaborative approaches. In continued support of this document and with a global network of veterinarians, physicians, politicians, official regulators, researchers, economists, journalists, and social anthropologists, the ZTB Sub-section aims to understand the dynamics of ZTB and obtain global recognition for the immediate need to control this disease. Thus, this network with the Sub-section helping to coordinate efforts will provide a platform for collaboration, global advocacy, and support to all involved sectors in the prevention and control of ZTB and related issues

What is the group doing to achieve its aims? 

We will continue developing the Working Group on “One Health” to re-enforce the ZTB agenda and the related challenges surrounding the emerging epidemics and pandemics caused by other zoonotic infectious diseases agents among humans and animals. Additionally, we also will be more involved in understanding the roles for environmental factors. With this more proactive ZTB Sub-section, and using the WHO “Roadmap” as a guide, we will reach out not only to governmental and public health sectors, but will more vigorously include current Sub-section members and more actively identify new members to garner suggestions and thoughts on how to target key groups in different countries. Overall, we hope to improve the Sub-section activities and potentially expand our Sub-section to become the “Zoonotic Diseases Sub-Section” in order to include and support other groups working on zoonotic diseases that have parallel work and efforts towards optimizing human and animal health.

Recent Zoonotic TB working group achievements:

The group had its one-year anniversary of the Zoonotic Tuberculosis (ZTB) Network: www.ztbnetwork.org

Because COVID-19 is a zoonotic disease, the Sub-section expanded its footprint beyond only Zoonotic TB, and sponsored a Plenary Session at the 52nd Union World Conference on “One Health: Beyond Medicine”. This session discussed the importance of vaccines in the control of zoonotic epidemics/pandemics of the past decade including Ebola, Zika and now SARS-CoV-2 viruses.

The 52nd Union World Conference also had a strong emphasis on the relationship between COVID-19 and tuberculosis particularly in the areas of diagnosis and disease development. The Zoonotic Sub-section sponsored two Late Breaker sessions on “COVID-19 and tuberculosis”.