Join The Union at the 51st Union World Conference on Lung Health from 20-24 October 2020. The conference theme is Advancing Prevention.
Prevention is key to ending tuberculosis (TB), reducing tobacco use and improving lung health worldwide. Yet prevention has been neglected as a research and operational priority in this sector. The 51st Union World Conference on Lung Health will put prevention at centre stage in the conversation.
Building on from previous years, the theme draws on commitments made in the political declaration adopted at the United Nations High-Level Meeting on TB in 2018, which promised to end the TB emergency by preventing hundreds of thousands of infections and deaths every year.
Similarly, tobacco use is a major preventable risk factor for non-communicable diseases and significantly increases a person’s risk of developing TB, as well as impairing treatment outcomes. As the tobacco industry continues to target young people and non-smokers worldwide with products intended to addict new generations of users, preventing uptake is essential.
And seven million people die every year from polluted air. There is a pressing need for policies and science that work to prevent air pollution, support lung health and reduce the burden of resulting diseases like COPD, asthma and others.
Find out more on the conference webpage.