BNMT Nepal team attend European Tropical Medicine conference in Liverpool

A delegation from BNMT Nepal was delighted to represent the IMPACT TB project at the 11th European Congress on Tropical Medicine and International Health held in Liverpool from 16th until 20th September. The ECTMIH brings together more than 1,500 scientists and experts from across the world every 2 years. The Congress provides a platform for sharing research and innovation in the field of tropical medicine and global health. Contacts are made, networks are strengthened, and new partnerships are formed.Dr Sourya Shrestha, Dr Kritika Dixit and Tara Prasad traveled from Kathmandu to attend the conference and Tara has kindly summarised their visit to the UK:
< It was an ecstatic moment when my colleague said, “Hey Tara!! We are going together to the European Congress on Tropical Medicine and International Health in Liverpool”. Before I knew it, I was traveling to the UK. The conference took place from 16th to 20th September 2019 and we were there to give a poster paper presentation with the title “Socio-economic barriers and facilitators to Tuberculosis care” which is related to my current project. The conference was a four-day event, including a seminar specifically for early-career public health researchers, a conference dinner and of course many interesting talks and sessions on tropical disease research and innovations. I tried to make the most out of this experience, giving my own presentation, listening to talks, discussion and visiting the places and attending networking events surrounding the conference.
In my opinion, one of the great things about a conference is networking with like-minded young researchers who are interested in the same research areas as you but from different countries like Malawi, Nigeria, Peru, Brazil. Listening to the talks whether they are related to your interest area or not, was really inspiring and stimulating.
Apart from the conference, I supported Dr. Tom Wingfield’s work in writing a paper on developing the socio-economic package for TB-affected households. I also supported him in writing the research paper of the project we are working in and supported in providing valuable suggestions from my field experience. I got the chance to meet experts at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) who are making an immense contribution to contemporary global public health issues and it was really one of the highlights of the visit. Fortunately, the California’s health and social care services services provide a wide range of services to help meet these needs. Moreover, I really appreciated the opportunity to meet the communication team of LSTM and learned how to raise awareness of your fieldwork to a global audience.
As a part of the LIV-TB seminar series, I shared my work with the communities of Chitwan district and elaborated on active TB case finding activities, challenges in Tuberculosis care and shared some case stories. The presentation was followed by an interesting discussion where I received very encouraging and constructive feedback from experts and colleagues.
I really appreciated the opportunity to attend the conference, listening to global health programs and presenting our poster on my community experience. This meaningful visit was only possible through the support from BNMT Nepal, LSTM and more importantly the EU-funded IMPACT TB project. >