Professor Giovanni Battista Migliori: the global fight against multidrug-resistant tuberculosis

Introduction

Professor Giovanni Battista Migliori has devoted over 30 years of his professional career in training tuberculosis experts, conducting research and providing technical assistance to national tuberculosis programs in Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America. With over 300 scientific publications in highly ranked Journals, Professor Migliori has significantly contributed to the understanding of Tuberculosis control and elimination and to the study of new drugs. Prof. Migliori is one on the global Key Opinion Leaders on Tuberculosis.

Professor Giovanni Battista Migliori has been the director of the World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre for Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases at the Fondazione S. Maugeri, a care and research institute based in Tradate, Italy, since 2000. In 2014, he became Secretary General of the European Respiratory Society (ERS), one of the largest non-profit organizations devoted to the control of tuberculosis and other respiratory diseases. Since 1989, he has been a consultant chest physician at the Department of Pulmonology, in charge of the cell biology laboratory and clinical trials at the Fondazione S. Maugeri. He graduated in medicine at the University of Pavia in 1985 and earned a postgraduate degree in tropical medicine at the University of Padua in 1987.

Professor Migliori has presented important lectures on the topic about multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDRT) on the grand 25^th ERS International Congress this year (Figure 1). With this great chance, we were honored to have an interview with Professor Migliori to dig into this MDRT topic (Figure 2). What is the global context of drug-resistant tuberculosis (DRTB)? How to fight against this kind of disease by the joint efforts with ERS and WHO as well as the global people? How about the ambitious goal to eliminate tuberculosis from the world? Let’s enjoy the interview.

Figure 1 Professor Giovanni Battista Migliori was speaking on the 25^th ERS International Congress this year. ERS, European Respiratory Society.

Figure 2 Professor Giovanni Battista Migliori in the interview.

Interview (Figure 3)

Figure 3 Professor Giovanni Battista Migliori: the global fight against multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (1). Available online: http://www.asvide.com/articles/717

Interview questions:

• What is the global context of the DRTB so far?
• The MDRT is still one of the major barriers that hinder the elimination of TB worldwide. What is the current strategy on the management of multidrug-resistant TB?
• As you are the Director of WHO Collaborating Centre for TB and Lung Diseases and the Secretary General of ERS, how does the two organizations ERS and WHO work together to combat TB worldwide?
• Which year do you estimate that TB will be finally eliminated?

Acknowledgements

None.

Footnote

Conflicts of Interest: The author has no conflicts of interest to declare.

References

1. He CX. Professor Giovanni Battista Migliori: the global fight against multidrug-resistant tuberculosis. Asvide 2015;2:141. Available online: http://www.asvide.com/articles/717

[Science Editor: Chao-Xiu (Melanie) He, JTD, jtd@amepc.org]