Overview

This instalment of ERS Vision Live, which took place on 30 June, 2025 (18:00-19:00 CEST), featured an expert panel, co-chaired by Prof. Dr Raquel Duarte and Dr Onno Akkerman, discussing tuberculosis (TB) guidelines and access to treatment.

The expert panellists discussed key topics, including:

• Developing guidelines during a changing landscape for drug-resistant TB;
• Implementation: how to make ERS/American Thoracic Society (ATS) TB guidelines locally relevant;
• Impact and future directions: broadening collaboration and adapting.

Co-Chairs

Prof. Dr Raquel Duarte

• Raquel is a pulmonologist; Director of the Porto Regional Branch of the Instituto Nacional de Saúde Doutor Ricardo Jorge (INSA); Full Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health at the Institute of Biomedical Sciences Abel Salazar (ICBAS), University of Porto, Portugal; and a researcher at the Institute of Public Health of the University of Porto (ISPUP).

• She currently serves as Chair of ERS Assembly 10 (Respiratory Infections). She previously served as Secretary of State for Health in Portugal.

• Her main areas of interest include tuberculosis in vulnerable populations, the impact of social and economic determinants on tuberculosis incidence, latent tuberculosis infection, multidrug- and extensively drug-resistant TB (M/XDR-TB), and non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM).

• In recent years, she has successfully combined public health leadership, clinical experience, academic teaching, and research.

Dr Onno Akkerman

• Onno is a pulmonologist, with more than 15 years of experience of clinical and research work.

• He currently serves as Secretary of ERS Assembly 10 (Respiratory infections).

• His main areas of interest include the holistic approach and patient-centered care of TB, optimisation and individualisation of treatment, transmission of TB, multidrug- and extensively drug-resistant TB, and non-tuberculous mycobacteria

• He currently works as Consultant Pulmonologist at the University Medical Center in Groningen, Netherlands.

Speakers

Prof. Giovanni Battista Migliori

• Giovanni is a specialist in respiratory medicine and medical statistics, with over 30 years of global experience in technical assistance, research and training.
• 50% of the global human TB workforces were trained by his 'Sondalo course', which has so far been conducted in over 100 editions in English, French, Russian, Spanish and Portuguese.

• He is Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for TB and Lung Diseases at Maugeri Research Institute, Tradate, Italy. He is also Honorary Professor at the Queen Mary University, London, UK and Visiting Professor at the University of Monterrey, Mexico, and University of Insubria, Italy.

• He has published over 700 peer-review papers in different languages, having authored the core guidelines by WHO, ERS, ATS, Infectious Diseases Society of America, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on different areas of TB and pioneered the TB Elimination movement.

• He is presently supporting countries in different continents to implement their TB National Strategic Plans and to develop Global Fund Proposals.

• Former Secretary General of the ERS and President of the UNION (European Region), he is currently Chief Editor of the International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease and Section Editor for TB of the European Respiratory Journal and Chair of Global Tuberculosis Network.

Dr Gunar Günther

• Gunar is a pulmonologist and clinician scientist, with more than 20 years' experience of clinical and research work in Europe and Africa.

• His special interests are drug-resistant TB, post-TB lung disease, and respiratory infections in general.

• He currently holds a post as consultant pulmonologist at the University Hospital in Bern, Switzerland, and as part time Professor at the University of Namibia, Windhoek, Namibia, where he also worked almost five years as a clinician scientist.

• He is also the current Vice-Chair of TBnet, a European TB research network.

Dr Manoj Mammen