ITM alumni webinar series featuring the winners of the Prize for Global Research 2021 of the Province of Antwerp.

Webinar #3: Acquired bedaquiline resistance during the treatment of drug-resistant tuberculosis

4 November 2021, 13 – 14h pm

Register in advance via Zoom.

Description:

This new series of ITM alumni webinars features the four ITM winners of the Prize for Global Research 2021. The Prize for Global Research is awarded yearly by the Province of Antwerp to research projects of ‘master-after-master’-students of ITM and other Higher Education Institutes. Development relevance, quality and originality of the master theses are key in the selection. Through this award, the Province of Antwerp wants to stimulate research relating to the global South.

In webinar #3, MTM-alumnus and laureate Jahan Mallick (Germany) will present his master thesis, entitled « Acquired bedaquiline resistance during the treatment of drug-resistant tuberculosis: A systematic review ». Drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) still signifies a heavy burden for affected patients and health systems worldwide. It remains difficult to cure and requires a long treatment with multiple potentially toxic drugs, yet resulting in dissatisfying rates of favorable treatment outcomes. The excitement was great when the new anti-tuberculous drug bedaquiline was introduced several years ago, as it showed promising results in regard to treatment success and mortality reduction. However, an increasing number of reports of acquired resistance to this drug were published in recent years, admonishing for caution. In this systematic review, Jahan assesses the frequency of acquired bedaquiline resistance and characteristics of patients acquiring it.

In this webinar, Jahan’s research findings will be the starting point for a topical exchange and discussion tackling a number of questions. How frequent is acquired bedaquiline resistance during current DR-TB treatment? What are possible explanations for its occurrence? And what are effective ways and solutions for a better protection of bedaquiline and other current second-line anti-TB drugs? 

The Q&A-session, moderated by Jahan’s thesis coach and DR TB-researcher Tom Decroo, will enable to share topical experiences in other international settings.

Speaker:

•    Jahan Mallick, MTM-alumnus 2021, Germany

Moderator:

•    Tom Decroo, senior researcher, Department of Clinical Sciences @ Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium

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