Alumni at ICASA 2019

ICASA is the biggest biennial HIV/AIDS conference held in Africa. The 2019 edition was organised from 2 to 7 December 2019 in Kigali, Rwanda. Its theme was "AIDS FREE AFRICA - Innovation, Community, and Political Leadership". The conference hosted 8000 national and international delegates working on HIV/AIDS, thriving to reach the 90-90-90 UNAIDS target goals.

Eight ITM alumni attended ICASA with a travel grant to present their posters. Geographically speaking they were a diverse group: West, Central, and East Africa were all represented.  The topics of their presentations ranged from HIV/DR TB co-infection management, to HIV health services integration and uptake. 

In the fringes of the conference, ITM organised an Alumni meeting about the “Unresolved questions in HIV-TB management” on 5 December.

The Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC) took the lead with two key presentations:

1. Mycobacterium tuberculosis and HIV co-infections: a burden on health care system (Innocent Turate, Institute of HIV/AIDS Diseases Prevention and Control Department, RBC)
2. False rifampicin-resistant Xpert MTB/RIF among paucibacillary samples (Jean-Claude Semuto Ngabonziza, Biomedical Services Department, National Reference Laboratory Division, RBC)

Several issues from these presentations were discussed with the 42 attendants such as the role of new diagnostics in the fight against DR-TB, and the challenge of introducing new tools in existing algorithms. 

Prof Dr Lut Lynen and Prof Dr Marie Laga moderated the meeting. Dr Anne Muendi Musuva, alumni representative in the ITM General Council closed the official part with sharing her thoughts on the role of ITM alumni in the field. The Alumni event ended with a social networking moment.