Congratulations to Luz Villa Castillo who submitted her MSc thesis this November! Luz is now working as an ID epidemiologist at the French National Health Agency (Santé Publique France) – bravo! We would also like to thank Petra Heitkamp, Surbhi Sheokand, Joel Klinton and Isabel Munoz Beaulieu for all their contributions, as they are leaving our team at the end of the year. Thank you!
You can read Madhukar Pai’s recent op-ed “From doing science to saving science” published in The Lancet.
You can read “From dependence to self-reliance: The future of the global tuberculosis response” from Petra Heitkamp, Obioma Chijioke-Akaniro and Madhukar Pai published in PLOS Medicine.
Madhukar Pai and colleagues published the opinion piece “Global south’s TB diagnostics innovations are key to fight the epidemic“, which you can read on Devex.
You can read Alexandra’s latest paper “Objective cough counting in clinical practice and public health: a scoping review” published in The Lancet Digital Health.
The 2025 Union conference was held November 18 to 21 this year, in Copenhagen (Denmark). Notable events involving our group included the satellite session “Transforming TB detection through tongue swab-based molecular testing“, the spotlight session “Tuberculosis: New warriors take on an old enemy” (see the video here) and the workshop “Critical path for introducing & scaling new diagnostics in high burden countries” held on November 18th (below).
It was also a great opportunity to connect with alumni!
Make sure to check out Madhu’s latest opinion piece “Kids have a right to vaccinations. Let’s bring in the lawyers” published in STATnews.
Congratulations to Shashika who won the 2025 Teaching Excellence award by the McGill Association of Postdoctoral Fellows! He also recently published “Disinvesting in the future leadership of global health has already begun: What can we do about it?“, which you can read in PLOS Global Public Health.
Heartfelt congratulations to Madhu, who was awarded the President’s Prize for Excellence in Teaching (Full Professor category)! This prestigious award recognizes excellence and commitment to teaching and the importance of these qualities in the academic experience of students at McGill University. Madhu officially received the prize from Provost Christopher Manfredi at the Fall Convocation. You can find out more in this McGill Reporter article.
Madhukar Pai, Petra Heitkamp and Yogan Pillay recently published the commentary “Integration of tuberculosis services within primary health care: converting challenges into opportunities“, which you can read in The Lancet Primary Care.
You can read Madhukar Pai, Esme Longley and colleagues’ opinion piece ““You can’t see what you’ve never had to live”—Cultivating imagination and solution spaces in global health and development” published in PLOS Global Public Health.
Through his over 25 years of research on TB, Madhukar Pai has read a ton of books on TB. He shared his “best of” historical, fiction, personal narrative, and contemporary books on TB in a post on Springer Nature Reseearch Communities.
The WHO published its consensus statement and call to action on optimal and early inclusion of pregnant and lactating women in TB research. Congratulations to Madlen Nash for all her hard work on this!
You can read the latest paper from Esme and Shashika “Towards inclusive authorship: Analyzing author representation in PLOS Global Public Health front matter content” published in PLoS Global Public Health.
On August 18th, WHO hosted a webinar to launch its policy brief on “TB and PHC: synergies and opportunities towards universal health coverage“, for which Madhukar Pai was one of the invited speakers.
Congratulations to all the contributors to this important WHO publication, including Mikashmi Kohli, as well as Claudia Denkinger, Zhi Zhen Qin and Madhukar Pai: “Target product profiles for tuberculosis screening tests“.
Congratulations to Jeyashree! She was awarded a Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences studentship for the 2nd year of her MSc!
Congratulations to Luz for winning a McGill International TB Centre student travel award! This award will support Luz in attending the 2025 Union conference in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Congratulations to Srinath on his appointment as Director of the National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis!
You can read “Provider perspectives on empirical antibiotic treatment for tuberculosis-like symptoms in South Africa’s private general practice sector: A qualitative study in two cities” published in PLoS Global Public Health. This work was part of the SP project in South Africa.
The 10th edition of the McGill Summer Institutes in Global Health was again a great success: over 1,100 individuals from 82 countries – with 70% from low- or middle-income countries – participated in 14 courses. It’s always also a great opportunity to catch up with alumni in person!
You can read “WHO target product profile for TB detection at peripheral settings: 2024 update“, a paper led by Mikashmi Kohli and to which Madhukar Pai and many of our alumni contributed. It was published in PLoS Global Public Health.
You can read “Moving the dial on diagnostics: an update from the Lancet Commission on diagnostics” published in The Lancet.
Read the latest opinion piece from Shashika Bandara, Nhial Deng and Madhukar Pai “The Global North is increasingly unsafe for global health meetings” published in The Lancet.
You can read the latest papers from the COVET team “Pre-treatment direct costs for people with tuberculosis during the COVID-19 pandemic in different healthcare settings in Bandung, Indonesia” published in PLoS One, as well as “A methodological review of patient healthcare-seeking journeys from symptom onset to receipt of care” published in BMJ Global Healh.
Congratulations to the many members of the team – present and past – who contributed to the WHO’s “Screening of tuberculosis using computer aided detection software” publication!
You can read “Fighting tuberculosis hand in hand: A call to engage communities affected by TB as essential partners in research” published in PLoS Global Public Health, a collaborative paper to which many people from our team participated.
You can read Ashlyn’s latest published papers “Evidence on Digital HIV Self-Testing From Accuracy to Impact: Updated Systematic Review” in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, as well as “Exploring the diagnostic accuracy of an HIV self-test optimized by a digital app-based solution: Results from a secondary data analysis of a field trial in South Africa” in PLoS Digital Health.
The annual TB Research Day of the McGill International TB Centre was held on March 21st. Many team members presented posters, and two won prizes:
Congratulations!
You can read Madhukar Pai’s perspective on John Green’s latest book “Everything is Tuberculosis” in the Lancet, in the piece titled “The injustice of tuberculosis“.
Congratulations to Alexandra Zimmer who successfully defended her PhD thesis! Alex is Madhukar Pai’s 11th PhD graduate! She is set to start a postdoctoral fellowship with Claudia Denkinger (another one of our alumni).
Madhukar Pai interviewed best-selling author John Green about his new book Everything Is Tuberculosis. You can read the interview “John Green Tackles An Injustice Called Tuberculosis” in Forbes, and find more about his books on John Green’s website.
You can read Shashika Bandara’s latest paper “Can we unplug global health education from The Matrix?“, with Ananya Banerjee and Madhukar Pai, in PLOS Global Public Health.
See the blog post “Paul Farmer’s Moral Clarity Offers Hope, Amidst Chaos And Darkness” published by Madhukar Pai in Forbes.
You can read “Maximizing tuberculosis services through private provider engagement – A case study from Pakistan” from Surbhi Sheokand, Poshan Thapa, Petra Heitkamp and colleagues, published in the Journal of Clinical Tuberculosis and Other Mycobacterial Diseases.
Check out the news item published in The Lancet “Historic TB outbreak a wake-up call for US policy makers“, where Madhukar Pai is quoted on this important matter.
Stop TB Canada published the report “Access to essential tuberculosis medicines in Canada: Insights from a national survey of healthcare providers“, to which Luz Villa Castillo and Lena Faust greatly contributed. The report highlighted the lack of access to essential TB drugs in Canada, and lack of child-friendly drug formulations. You can also check out this news item about the report.
You can read Madhukar Pai’s latest blog post “Tuberculosis – new warriors take on an old enemy” published in Springer Nature Research Communities, about 4 new books about TB. Stay tuned for his webinar with all 4 authors on TB day.
Congratulations to Toyin, one of our alumni, who has been appointed Professor of Global Health at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM)!
You can read the latest paper from the COVET team “Health and tuberculosis systems resilience, the role of the private sector and pandemic preparedness: insights from a cross-country qualitative study with policy-makers in India, Indonesia and Nigeria” published in BMJ Global Health.
Congratulations Claudia, one of our alumni, who was promoted to full professor at Heidelberg University!
You can read Jeyashree Kathiresan and colleagues’ new paper “Cost of TB care and equity in distribution of catastrophic TB care costs across income quintiles in India” published in BMC Global Health Research and Policy.
A 5-day intensive workshop on advanced TB diagnostics was held in Johannesburg, South Africa, from December 9 to 13. Wits University, along with NHLS and the South African National TB Program (NDOH), hosted the course, with help from the McGill International TB Centre and McGill Global Health Programs. The event was a huge success, thanks to its 138 participants, and its stellar faculty presenters.
Congratulations to Alex, who submitted her PhD thesis today! You can find out more about the various projects she contributed to during her doctoral studies on our Validation and integration of rapid testing for COVID-19 and TB project page and our AI-based analysis of cough for COVID-19 screening in Montreal and Lima project page.
You can read Jeyashree’s latest opinion piece “Boost the TB fight with better undernutrition monitoring” written with Hemant Deepak Shewade, published in The Hindu.
Read the latest paper from Angelina Sassi, Lavanya Huria, Nathaly Aguilera Vasquez, Madhukar Pai, Charity Oga-Omenka and the rest of the COVET team “Private sector tuberculosis care quality during the COVID-19 pandemic: a repeated cross-sectional standardised patients study of adherence to national TB guidelines in urban Nigeria” published in BMJ Global Health.
This year, the Union conference was held in Bali, Indonesia, November 12-16. Our TBPPM team had a booth on-site that welcomed many visitors, and allowed for multiple side-meetings and information-sharing between members in the Community Connect area. It was also a fantastic opportunity to catch up with friends and alumni from the Pai Global TB Group.
You can read Vaidehi Nafade, Paulami Sen and colleagues’ paper “The value of diagnostic imaging for enhancing primary care in low- and middle-income countries” published in eClinicalMedicine.
Congratulations to all the authors – including many alumni from the Pai Global TB Group – on their paper “Building social equity and person-centred innovation into the end TB response” published in The International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease.
Read the latest paper from Madhukar Pai, Shashika Bandara and Catherine Kyobutungi published in The Lancet, titled “Shifting power in global health will require leadership by the Global South and allyship by the Global North“.
You can read the latest paper from the COVET team “The shifting landscape of private healthcare providers before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: Lessons to strengthen the private sectors engagement for future pandemic and tuberculosis care” published in PLoS Global Public Health.
We’d like to welcome Dr. Shashika Bandara, who is joining our team as a Postdoctoral Fellow. Shashika’s PhD was focused on global health governance, and he will work on our project commissioned by the O’Neill-Lancet Commission on Racism, Structural Discrimination and Global Health. Find out more about Shashika on our team’s page.
Congratulations to Ashlyn Beecroft on her paper “Digital HIV self-testing as an exemplar: a perspective on benefits, challenges, and opportunities” published in Expert Review of Molecular Diagnostics.
You can read Lena Faust’s latest paper “Case fatality among people with drug-susceptible TB enrolled in a private health sector TB treatment support program in Bihar, India during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic” published in PLoS Global Public Health, with Sophie Huddart and Madhukar Pai among the co-authors.
The entire team wishes all the best to Joel, who is taking a new position at the Ottawa Public Health department! We’re all grateful for his instrumental contributions to the TBPPM Learning Network.
A warm welcome to Jeyashree Kathiresan, a physician from India who is starting an MSc in epidemiology! We are also welcoming Jacquelyn Yushkov, who is joining the team working on a series of systematic reviews on sputum expectoration, Samantha Ayoub, joining the TBPPM project, and Esme Longley, who will be working on TB global health projects. Welcome!
Many alumni are also starting new degrees:
Congratulations!