TB DIAGNOSIS BRIEFING
Diagnosis is the first step in accessing life saving treatment, preventing the spread of TB and the emergence of drug-resistance. But progress towards international targets is lagging, and diagnosis remains inaccessible to millions of people.
Informed by an expert panel of scientists, technical experts and people with lived experience (see below), this briefing - published June 2025 - explains ‘what good looks like’ and how to overcome common policy and implementation barriers. The primer acts as an Executive Summary.
EXPERT PANEL
Professor Bachti Alisjahbana
Profesor Alisjahbana is an Internist, infectologist and an active clinician in Hasan Sadikin Hospital, Bandung, Indonesia. He chaired the Research Center for Care and Control of Infectious Diseases (RC3ID) of the University of Padjadjaran since 2016. His main research interests are in the field of Tuberculosis diagnostic, immunology, and prevention. He also has been active in Dengue, Acute Undifferentiated Fever and HIV research topics. Interests in public health are focused on ways to have the public and private health care facility collaborate to care for TB comprehensively. He held a position as the Secretary of The National TB Expert Committee in 2016-2022, a member of the Indonesian National Academy of Sciences, and the steering committee of the Indonesian Research Network on Infectious Disease (INA-RESPOND).
Dr Grania Brigden
Grania Brigden is a Senior TB Advisor at The Global Fund. In this role, she is involved in providing technical advice on investment of Global Fund resources to Global Fund teams and grant implementers and works closely with national programs and technical partners. Additionally, she leads the TB Next Gen Market Shaping and TB New Product Introduction work. Grania has previously worked for The International Union Against TB and Lung Disease (The Union) as the Director of TB, Médicins Sans Frontières (MSF) Access Campaign as a TB Advisor, with Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO) in Uganda. Grania studied medicine at University of Aberdeen and completed her specialist training in general and respiratory medicine in the UK and is a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh.
Dr Gulmira Kalmambetova
Dr. Gulmira Kalmambetova is the Deputy Head of the National TB Program in Kyrgyzstan and leads the Department of Strategic Development and International Cooperation at the National Center of Phthisiology, where she advances scientific research and international TB collaboration.
Previously, she served as Head of the National Reference Laboratory (NRL), overseeing TB diagnostics through both conventional and molecular genetic methods. Under her leadership, the NRL successfully implemented Whole Genome and Targeted Sequencing, advancing efforts to make WGS a routine diagnostic tool for drug-resistant TB. Her work also led to the lab’s ISO 15189 accreditation in 2022 by the Kyrgyz Accreditation Center.
Dr. Kalmambetova has also worked with the International Committee of the Red Cross, contributing to the TB in Prisons Program, and as a laboratory specialist with the USAID Quality Health Care Project.
In recognition of her contributions to the COVID-19 response, she was awarded the title of Honoured Doctor of the Kyrgyz Republic in 2021.
Dr Ramya Ananthakrishnan
Dr. Ramya Ananthakrishnan is the Director of REACH, a civil society organization in India focused on TB care and prevention. A Medical Doctor with a Master’s in Community Medicine, she has over 21 years of experience designing and implementing public health programs.
She is a member of India’s National Technical Expert Group, the WHO’s PPM Core Group, the TB PPM Learning Network, and leads the Community Engagement Task Force within the New Diagnostics Working Group.
Dr. Ramya oversees several TB initiatives across India, including public-private partnerships, community system strengthening, active case finding, and the engagement of TB survivors to improve care quality. Her work emphasizes innovative, integrated approaches to TB control.
She has played a key role in Stop TB Partnership’s CRG assessments and contributed to global and national research on end-user perspectives of new diagnostics. Dr. Ramya has authored multiple scientific publications and presented widely at national and international forums.
Professor Jeremiah Chakaya
Prof. Jeremiah Chakaya Muhwa is the CEO and Technical Director of the Respiratory Society of Kenya (ReSoK) and former President of the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union). He also holds an honorary teaching position at the School of Medicine, Kenyatta University.
Born and educated in Kenya, Prof. Chakaya earned his MBChB in 1985 and M.Med in Internal Medicine in 1992 from the University of Nairobi, with further training in lung medicine at the Royal Brompton Hospital in London and Kyorin University Hospital in Tokyo.
He began as a TB and lung disease researcher at the Kenya Medical Research Institute and served as National TB Program Manager at the Ministry of Health (2003–2006). He was later Professor of Global Respiratory Health at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine.
Internationally, he has served as Vice Chair of the Stop TB Partnership, Chair of WHO’s STAG-TB, and Chair of the Global Fund’s Technical Review Panel. He is a founding member of ReSoK and serves on the Pan African Thoracic Society executive committee.
Tapiwanashe Kujinga
Tapiwanashe Kujinga is the Director of the Pan-African Treatment Access Movement (PATAM). He is a qualified lawyer who has been involved in the global health response for more than 20 years. Among some of the interventions he has been involved in are HIV, TB, medicines regulation, intellectual property rights, antimicrobial resistance, Covid-19 and advocacy on access to medicines. PATAM and the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law formed the Diagnostic Equity Consortium (DEC), a collaborative initiative aimed at scaling up access to diagnostics in low- and middle-income countries. The DEC runs a webinar series on new and pipeline TB and AMR diagnostics. Strategic alliances have also been forged with global players which include FIND and the ASLM to shape the market on innovative TB diagnostics. Tapiwa is also a member of the Integrated Diagnostics Consortium (IDC) and the Future of Diagnostics (FDx) in Africa.
Ashna Ashesh
Ms. Ashna Ashesh is a lawyer, public health professional, and MDR-TB Survivor. Ashna is Vice Chair, SE Asia R-TAG-TB, WHO and a member of the WHO Civil Society Task Force on TB. She is a member of the Steering Committee (SC) of the ReLAY track of FAST-TB, and a part of The Building Experience Treating Tuberculosis with Expanded Resistance Project (The BETTER Project). She is associated with Survivors Against TB (SATB), a community collective in India that advocates for person and community-centered care. Ashna is a Member of the Governance and Management Committee for the National Technical Support Unit (NTSU), Central TB Division, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, India. She has served as a Subject Expert and Member on the Sub-Committee of Experts for Gender-responsive and LGBTQIA++ affirmative action in TB, Central TB Division, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, India. Ashna’s work focuses on access to high-quality care including new diagnostics and treatment, a rights-based approach to care, community engagement, TB and mental health, and gender-responsive TB care.
Professor Julio Croda
Dr. Julio Croda, MD, PhD, is a physician-scientist specializing in infectious diseases. He is an Associate Professor of Internal Medicine at the Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul, a Specialist at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, and an Associate Professor at the Yale School of Public Health. He earned his MD from the Federal University of Bahia (2003) and PhD from São Paulo University (2008).
Dr. Croda served as Chief of the Department of Communicable Diseases at Brazil’s Ministry of Health (2019–2020) and is the President of the Brazilian Society of Tropical Medicine (2022–2023). His research centers on the epidemiology of tuberculosis, particularly in prison settings, aiming to curb TB transmission in both prisons and surrounding communities.
He is also involved in COVID-19 and arbovirus vaccine trials, with a focus on clinical effectiveness. His multidisciplinary work spans epidemiology, field research, and data analysis, supported by the NIH, CNPq, and CAPES.
Professor Norbert Ndjeka
Professor Norbert Ndjeka is the Chief Director for TB Control and Management at South Africa’s National Department of Health. Formerly the Director of Drug-Resistant TB, TB and HIV, he has led national efforts that significantly reduced drug-resistant TB cases and improved treatment success rates across the country.
A family physician by training, Prof. Ndjeka holds diplomas in clinical HIV management and health institution management. He is widely published in international peer-reviewed journals and has developed treatment guidelines and training materials for drug-resistant TB across multiple African countries.
He currently serves as Chair of the African Green Light Committee (Afro-GLC), advising WHO on the management of drug-resistant TB, and is President of the End TB SADC Committee.
In recognition of his leadership and impact, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Cape Town and appointed Honorary Associate Professor of Medicine at the same institution.
Wayne Van Gemert
Wayne van Gemert is a Senior Diagnostics Technical Officer in the Executive Directors Office of the Stop TB Partnership in Geneva and project lead for the introducing New Tools Project (iNTP), a collaboration between Stop TB and USAID to introduce new diagnostic tests and digital health technologies to high TB burden countries in Africa and Asia. Prior to 2017, he served as a Technical Officer in the diagnostics and global anti-TB drug resistance surveillance teams at WHO headquarters, and in the WHO Russia country office. He has an MPH degree from the University of California, Berkeley.