Leong Scholar presents on the adverse events of tuberculosis treatment in children

Dr. Sarah Silverberg, a Leong Scholar and MSc student at the Institute of Health Policy, Management, and Evaluation at the University of Toronto, is currently completing her fellowship in pediatric infectious diseases at the Hospital for Sick Children. Last month, she presented two posters at the 2025 END TB Conference in Vancouver. She provides a summary of her poster presentations.

The END TB 2025 conference is the North American Region's annual conference from The International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease. It brings together clinicians, scientists, and public health practitioners treating tuberculosis (TB) in North America, as well as survivors who come to share their experiences as patients. At the conference, I presented two posters showcasing work from my infectious disease fellowship at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids). My first poster highlighted the final results from a systematic review and meta-analysis of adverse events of TB treatment in children, through which we sought to understand whether dose increases in 2010 led to an increase in adverse events while on treatment. My second project was a practical review of using culture techniques on stool to diagnose TB. This is a cheap, available and under-utilized diagnostic tool which we have had success with at SickKids— it has been the key diagnostic in a few patient cases. This conference was a great opportunity to meet clinicians and researchers from across North America, and has given me the opportunity to build further connections and collaborate with others at different centres, particularly those treating children. It was also a great learning experience as I got to hear survivors tell their stories and learn about the multitude of ways scientists are working to try to address this global challenge.