The LIGHT Consortium

Season’s Greetings from the LIGHT Consortium 🌟

We’re grateful to everyone who has contributed to our work this year—partners, collaborators, and the wider community.

Here’s to reflection, rest, and renewed energy for the year ahead.

Warm wishes for the festive season!

@bnmtnepal.bsky.social team talking to Beate Ringwald about how to implement participatory co-design approaches with our communities.
#UnionConf @lightontb.bsky.social

👩🏾‍⚕️ Do young men and women face different TB mortality risks?

Today: Rhoda Pola (Nairobi, Kenya) presents at #WCLH2025:
Gender-specific predictors of TB mortality among adolescents & young adults in Kenya.

Findings highlight gendered vulnerabilities & opportunities for targeted TB interventions.

👨🏾‍⚕️ How can TB programmes do more to reach men?

Jasper Nidoi (MLI) presents findings from a gender-specific TB intervention combining extended clinic hours, male champions, & integrated health screening.
Results show how gender-specific strategies can improve #TB detection & engagement among men

📸 What does life after TB really mean for survivors?

Today at #WCLH2025, Winceslaus Katagira (MLI) shares a photovoice study giving TB survivors in #Uganda the chance to tell their stories through photography.
Their voices reveal resilience, challenges & the need for a more inclusive TB response

At the #2025UnionConference, The LIGHT Consortium conducted a workshop titled:

“No-one ever asked us before! Building trust & collaborative action through participatory visual methods in #TB research.”

Read more: lnkd.in/ejH8bSax

All are welcome to join the Gender Equity in TB Working Group today at 12:30 in Room B4B @theunion.org! We'll share updates on working group activities and host a panel discussion on progress to date and ways forward to ensure an equitable and inclusive #TB response.

Visit the Community Connect Photography Exhibition at the #2025UnionConference, Bella Centre Balcony 3, to learn more about the LIGHT Consortium amazing work.

Our photos are telling a story are at a display at the #2025UnionConference #CommunityConnect, Bella Centre Balcony 3.

📷 Our photography exhibition features work that we have conducted using the photovoice study method.

Learn more: light.lstmed.ac.uk/research-2

💬 Can community-wide TB screening help bend the curve in Uganda?

Today at #WCLH2025, @alexandra-richards.bsky.social presents modelling on Uganda’s twice-yearly active case-finding campaigns.

The work suggests these community efforts are meaningfully reducing #TB incidence and mortality.

Is TB more common in cities or rural areas?

New analysis presented by Seyed Alireza Mortazavi at #WCLH2025 today!

• Urban > Rural in Africa
• Rural > Urban in Western Pacific
• Similar elsewhere

2.3 million participants 26 countries using a Bayesian model fitted to WHO data.

🤝 by @LIGHTonTB

TODAY!

Innovation from Nigeria at the Union Conference! #WCLH2025
Nathan Zoakah presents an e-poster on how community-based initiatives improved TB knowledge and attitudes in Nasarawa — using machine learning to assess impact.

#TB #PublicHealth #GlobalHealth #Nigeria @zanklic.bsky.social

🗓️ Workshop #UnionConf2025!
Learn how Beate Ringwald, Mary Mpakibi, Zakariah Abdukkahi, Rebecca Karimu, Chukwuebuka Ugwu, Jasper Nidoi & Rhoda Pola use participatory visual methods to build trust, centre lived TB experiences & foster equitable research partnerships.
#CommunityEngagement #TBResearch

🗓️ Happening today at #UnionConf2025!

Chidiebube Aneke from @zanklic.bsky.social presents a gender-responsive, community-led TB initiative in peri-urban Nigeria that’s reducing stigma and improving access to care.

#TB #GlobalHealth #Equity #UnionConference2025

🗓️ Happening today at #UnionConf2025!

Are men really more affected by TB?

@nswartwood.bsky.social (Harvard), with support from the LIGHT Consortium, presents new Bayesian insights into TB prevalence by sex across LMICs.

#TB #Epidemiology #GlobalHealth

Day 1: the LIGHT Annual Consortium meeting kicks off this morning at the Crown Plaza in Copenhagen.

Consortium partners from Nigeria, Malawi, Kenya, Uganda and the UK meet to discuss the key research findings, research uptake and impact so far.

People at the Centre: Lessons from the LIGHT TB Research Programme - LSTM in Conversation In this episode of LSTM in Conversation, host Dr Kerry Millington, Senior Research & Policy Associate at LSTM and working as a Research Uptake Manager on the LIGHT research programme, speaks with ...

🎙️ Podcast!

Host @kerrymillington.bsky.social talks with Early Career Researchers Dr Jasper Nidoi and Dr Ebuka Ugwu about their work on LIGHT - tackling gender & social barriers to #TB care in Africa

With insights from Dr Mohammed Yassin from Global Fund.
Listen👉 shorturl.at/gjDD3
#EndTB #UKaid

@zanklic.bsky.social @petermacp.bsky.social @kchorton.bsky.social @afidep.bsky.social @bertiesquire.bsky.social @maklunginstitute.bsky.social

YouTube video by LIGHT Consortium Chuwuebuka Ugwu - DESTINE Study, Nigeria

Every year, ~500,000 people develop TB in Nigeria — but 30% go undiagnosed.

Dr. Chukwuebuka Ugwu’s DESTINE study shows how gender-tailored, locally co-created TB interventions can close this gap.

🎥 Watch here: youtu.be/JOFzgHOwFFk?...

@zanklic.bsky.social

Dr Augustine Choko Malawi Liverpool Wellcome Programme - a LIGHT Consortium partner in Malawi noted that two-thirds of TB transmission is attributed to men — to other men, women, and children.

👉 Targeting men in TB interventions protects everyone.

Read about our research in Malawi: bit.ly/47hcWuj

“We can’t end tuberculosis (TB) by 2030 without focusing on men.” – Dr Eliya Zulu

During a panel discusion at the Malawi’s Research Dissemination Conference, Dr Zulu of the LIGHT Consortium emphasised the need for gender-responsive and evidence-informed strategies to tackle TB.

The LIGHT Consortium is participating in the Malawi National Public Health Research Dissemination Conference.

🏢 BICC in Lilongwe
⏰ 29-31 Oct 2025

Theme: Advancing Public Health Research for Building Resilient and Sustainable Systems.

Learn more: light.lstmed.ac.uk/research/res...

@kchorton.bsky.social

Last week (23–24 Oct) LIGHT cohosted Annual TB Mngrs meeting in Joburg, SA with SADC Secretariat.

Participants were NTP Mgrs, dvpt partners, & regional health leaders from the 16 member states in Southern Africa to review progress, share lessons & strengthen collaboration in the fight against TB.

Today, with representatives from Kenyan's MoH's National TB prog & partners in Kenya AFIDEP & ReSoK, Dr Katherine Horton from
@LSHTM
led an eye-opening, interactive session on understanding TB modelling & how these models help shape better decisions & progs

At the 2025 Lung Health Symposium, key voices shaped Kenya’s TB response.

Dr Jeremiah Chakaya, CEO at the Respiratory Society of Kenya a LIGHT Consortium partner in Kenya, called for bold action & a balanced approach to tackling TB that includes biomedical as well as addressing social determinants.

On this #WorldLungDay2025

The LIGHT Consortium call all for action.

📍Protect lungs, save lives, invest in person-centred, data-driven TB interventions that reach the most vulnerable by leaving no one behind

We can collectively foster a healthier society.

#HealthyLungs

@zanklic.bsky.social

🚨 Malawi youth speak out on TB:

"Kufotokoza zomwe anyamata ndi atsikana amakumana nazo akadwala TB"

"Uncovering lived experiences of young men & women affected by TB.”

Read new photovoice booklet⤵️

📘 light.lstmed.ac.uk/resources/li...

#HealthEquity #Photovoice

“Twalwala, n’etufuna obujjanjabi era n’etuwona naye tetwasigala kye kimu”
"We fell sick, received treatment, recovered-but were never the same.”
Uganda TB survivors share their Luganda voices through photovoice - amplifying lived experiences & perspectives

📘 light.lstmed.ac.uk/resources/li...

“I used to crush 40 jerry cans of stone a day. Now I can barely lift 10.”

This is the reality of life after TB.

📘 Explore a remarkable photovoice study with survivors in Uganda:
light.lstmed.ac.uk/resources/li...

#TBsurvivors #PublicHealth #Photovoice #EndTB