Dr. Qian Long, Assistant professor of Global Health is scheduled to give a seminar to introduce her idea for a grant proposal in October (see below). Please email fx28@duke.edu if you want to get the Zoom link.

Presentation date& time: Oct 23 9am-10am Beijing time / October 22 9pm – 10m EST via Zoom
• 9:00 -9:30 presentation
• 9:30-10:00 Q&A

Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the top ten global causes of death leading to 1.4 million deaths in 2018. In the era of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the World Health Organization (WHO) End TB strategy laid out milestones and targets that include by 2030 90% reduction in the number of TB deaths and 80% reduction in TB incidence compared with 2015, and no TB-affected families facing catastrophic payment for TB. The COVID-19 pandemic globally has devastated effects on TB responses. A modelling analysis in TB high-burden countries suggested an additional 6.3 million cases of TB and an additional 1.4 million TB deaths between 2020 and 2025.

TB is a disease of poverty disproportionately afflicting more socio-economically vulnerable people, like rural-to-urban migrants who also have the least access to health services. We propose a study concept to assess the impact of COVID-19 on the access to, utilization and outcome of TB treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic and post-pandemic periods in China and Vietnam, with a focus on the intersectionality analysis of gender and rural-to-urban migrant status and other social determinants in order to develop evidence-based policy recommendations for strengthening TB response in the era of COVID-19 pandemic and improving health and gender equality in TB. This study will consist of scoping review in relation to the impact of COVID-19 on TB responses in TB high burden countries, questionnaire surveys with TB patients and qualitative interviews with key stakeholders. We anticipate impacts via shared good practices and lessons learned from cross-country collaborations.

  • Greg Gray, Professor of Medicine, Duke
  • Shenglan Tang, Mary D.B.T. and James H. Semans International Distinguished Professor, Duke
  • Osondu Ogbuoji, Assistant Research Professor of Global Health, Duke