The 53rd Union World Conference on Lung Health Held Online

The 53rd Union World Conference on Lung Health, organized by the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (the Union), was held online from Nov 8 to 11, 2022. The conference theme was "Combating Pandemics: Today and Tomorrow". With the support and guidance of the World Health Organization (WHO) ,the China CDC, and the local CDC,, Gong Qiuguo (nicknamed Guoguo), a tuberculosis (TB) volunteer from Jingmen City, Hubei Province, China, delivered an online keynote report upon invitation at its sub-conference. 

Young people have always been the backbone force in the global combat against TB. The WHO and the United Nations (UN) both harbor great expectations for youths participation in the prevention of pandemics like TB and Covid-19, as well as for their engagement in promoting health care for all of humanity. China, as well, attaches great importance to the development of young volunteers, and actively encourages public voluntary actions for TB prevention and control. Over the past 10 years, the number of volunteers in China has increased to over 1 million, more than half of whom are young people.

In a keynote report titled "the darker the moment, the more efforts shall be made to seek light", Guoguo, on behalf of China's outstanding TB volunteers, talked about her five-year public welfare journey as a TB volunteer . In 2017, she became the first batch of multi-drug resistant TB volunteers in China. Every day she would share knowledge about TB prevention and control in the WeChat groups in various cities in Hubei, patiently answer every patients' questions, encourage them to take and report their daily medicines, and even accompany them to seek medical treatment. She also participated in offline TB knowledge lectures and trained volunteers across the province. With the support of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)of Hubei Province, Guoguo has become a bridge connecting patients, hospitals and the CDC. To date, over 1,000 TB patients have received peer-to-peer support from her.

At the conference, Guoguo said that as a young volunteer from China and a practitioner of the “1+1 initiative” of the WHO, she, like her fellow volunteers, is dedicated to the national campaign of building TB-free communities, the popularization of TB knowledge and TB control and prevention. She said she believes that with more actions taken and voices heard, the “END TB” goal would be realized and children could live in a TB-free world.

　　  　　  Guoguo delivers her report at the sub-conference of the 53rd Union World Conference on Lung Health. [Photo/chinacdc.cn]

More and more Chinese TB volunteers are sharing their valuable experiences in TB prevention and control as well as in patients' care on the international stage, demonstrating their capacity for action, cohesion, and influence in the combat against the disease, and enhancing exchanges with volunteers from all around the world. The volunteerism they inherited is taking them further towards the "END TB" goal.　

Experts and volunteers from the WHO, China, Kenya, Nepal and Gambia had a “cloud gathering” during the conference and shared their insights with the rest of the world.