Hyderabad: The Honourable Vice-President of India, Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu, will be the Chief Guest of the 50^th Union World Conference on Lung Health to be held in Hyderabad, India and will officially inaugurate the conference at its Opening Ceremony next Wednesday, 30 October.

“We are delighted that the Honourable Vice President of India has accepted our invitation to attend and formally open the conference”, said José Luis Castro, Executive Director of the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union). “We are at a critical juncture in the fight against the tuberculosis (TB) epidemic in India and we are grateful for this incredible support from the Government of India, which is at the forefront of the global effort to end the emergency”.

In 2018, 10 million people globally fell ill with TB and 1.5 million died from the disease. India has the highest TB burden in the world, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has committed to eliminate TB in India by 2025, five years ahead of the official UN target.

Up to 4,000 delegates including senior figures from government, health officials, doctors, researchers, nurses, TB survivors and civil society organisations from around the world, are expected to attend the Union World Conference, the first in more than half a century to be held in India.

Film and television actress Claire Forlani has accepted a role as ambassador for The Union and will also speak at the opening ceremony. The theme of the conference is Ending the Emergency and the event is expected to announce a series of global news announcements around prevention efforts that are predicted to have significant impact on the epidemic.

Speakers at the opening ceremony will also include Dr Ren Minghui, Assistant Director-General at the World Health Organization, senior representatives of the State of Telangana, and Nandita Venkatesan, a TB survivor, activist and journalist from Mumbai.

On Tuesday 29 October, the conference will also host the inaugural Survivors Summit, which is expected to be attended by hundreds of survivors of TB and other lung diseases from around the world.

The scale of the TB global health emergency has been acknowledged by the United Nations (UN), which held the inaugural High-Level Meeting on TB in New York last September, culminating in a Political Declaration signed by world leaders committed to ending TB by 2030.