To mark World TB Day this week, the ATS co-sponsored a series of events with partners including the National TB Controllers Association and TB Alliance on Capitol Hill, in Washington, DC. Sixteen TB survivors from 12 states across the U.S., ATS staff and other TB advocates participated in the fourth annual TB Survivors Hill Day. The TB survivors met with their congressional delegations to call for increased funding for domestic and global TB programs and enactment of legislation to combat TB in the U.S., the Comprehensive TB Elimination Act, S. 834, sponsored by Sen. Brown (D-OH). 

On March 27, in collaboration with the House TB Elimination Caucus, co-chaired by Reps. Eliot Engel (D-NY) and Don Young (R-AK), the ATS co-hosted a briefing for U.S. House of Representatives staff entitled, Tuberculosis, New Momentum to Combat the Top Global Infectious Killer. The speaker panel featured two year-old TB survivor Jackson East and his mother Kristine Steward-East of Dallas, TX; Julie Higashi, MD, director of Los Angeles County’s TB program; Cheri Vincent, division chief of USAID’s TB program; and Phil LoBue, MD, ATS member and director of the CDC’s Division of TB Elimination. Ms. Steward-East, whose son contracted TB as a six-week old infant, urged Congress to support increased funding for domestic and global TB programs as well as research and development.

On March 28, the ATS co-sponsored a Senate staff briefing, Accelerating the Response to Tuberculosis, with partners RESULTS and others.  The speaker panel included Diana Fortune, RN, New Mexico TB Program Manager; Sneha Dedhia, MD, TB survivor; Cheri Vincent from USAID; and Mark Harrington, executive director of Treatment Action Group.