Programme
Overview

What to Expect at the 9th SA TB Conference 2026

The 9th South African Tuberculosis Conference 2026 is designed to be far more than a traditional scientific meeting. It is a multi-dimensional convening experience intellectually rigorous, professionally rewarding, and socially impactful created to foster meaningful collaboration and to reinforce our shared commitment to sustained progress toward a TB-free world.

A Conference That Starts Before the Opening Plenary

The conference experience begins even before the formal programme opens, with pre-conference satellite sessions and continues beyond the core programme through additional satellite sessions and policy roundtables. These half- and full-day engagements are practical, focused, and skills-oriented, enabling delegates to deepen their expertise, engage directly with leading TB practitioners, and explore tools, methods, and implementation strategies applicable to policy, practice, and research. Collectively, these sessions provide space for in-depth discussion on priority issues, innovations, and regional contexts, fostering targeted dialogue, strategic alignment, and collaborative problem-solving among researchers, policymakers, donors, and implementers.

A World-Class Scientific Programme

At the core of the SA TB Conference 2026 is a three-day scientific programme defined by excellence, relevance, and real-world impact. The programme features high-level plenaries and state-of-the-art lectures, complemented by parallel thematic tracks that reflect the full continuum of tuberculosis science, policy, and practice.

The scientific content is structured across four integrated tracks:

  • Track 1: Basic, Translational, and Clinical Sciences
    Focusing on mechanisms of TB pathogenesis, genomics, host–pathogen interactions, diagnostics, and the translation of laboratory discoveries to bedside application.
  • Track 2: Prevention, Vaccines, and Treatment Strategies
    Addressing TB prevention, vaccine development, clinical trials, drug testing, and lab-to-biotech partnerships that accelerate innovation and therapeutic advancement.
  • Track 3: Epidemiology, Surveillance, and Health Systems
    Covering epidemiology, surveillance, modelling, case finding, implementation science, and health systems strengthening to improve TB control at population level.
  • Track 4: Human Rights, Policy, and Lived Experience
    Exploring human rights, civil society engagement, advocacy, patient and health worker experiences, and TB policy, with attention to equity, accountability, and systems change.

 

Guided by the Scientific Programme Committee, the programme will balance global evidence with grounded, context-sensitive perspectives. Together, these tracks provide a comprehensive and interdisciplinary programme that bridges discovery, implementation, and impact, supporting evidence-informed action toward eradicating tuberculosis.

Oral abstract sessions and dynamic poster presentations ensure that both established leaders and emerging voices shape the conversation.

The Future Leaders Programme reinforces the conference’s long-term vision by elevating emerging researchers and next-generation leaders, ensuring the future of TB science and advocacy is diverse, inclusive, and globally representative by providing a platform for newly qualified PhD students to present their research.

Connection, Recognition, and Celebration

The conference recognises that meaningful collaboration is built not only in sessions, but also in shared experiences. Delegates can look forward to:

  • A welcome ceremony
  • Social moments that foster connection across disciplines and borders.
  • Exhibition
  • A closing ceremony that includes global recognition through prestigious awards.

Where evidence meets action: Innovation, Networking, and Showcasing

The SA TB 2026 Exhibition will be a curated, dynamic knowledge-exchange platform showcasing cutting-edge TB research, tools, technologies, and community-driven innovations. Designed to encourage meaningful engagement, the space will connect delegates with major funders, implementers, and partners across the TB response, while foregrounding critical themes of stigma reduction, resilience, and recovery. The exhibition will also highlight integrated approaches to TB care, human rights, and social justice, reinforcing the central role of equity and lived experience in achieving a TB-free future.

Why this should be the conference to attend in 2026?

The world faces persistent TB challenges amid rising health inequities, climate shocks, and growing antimicrobial resistance. The 9th SA TB Conference 2026 directly addresses this reality, cutting across health systems, social structures, and policy domains to confront the root causes of TB rather than its symptoms.

 

By participating, delegates are not only staying at the forefront of TB science and policy; they are helping to shape a TB-free world at a moment when leadership and collective action matter most.

The 9th SA TB Conference 2026 is not just a programme to attend. It is a moment to be part of where science, policy, community, and purpose converge to end TB, together.

CONTACTS

GENERAL QUERIES

Tel: +27 87 821 1109 / 012 110 4080

info@tbconference.co.za