 Good morning, can everyone please start taking their seats so if I can ask for quiet We are going to be broadcasting this live via the web So what you say now can be heard and are welcome to our audience online My name is Dr. Philip DeCro. I'm working the Manson unit with MSF in London a warm welcome to all of you here today This is the MSF Scientific Day South Asia and it's a very exciting time I as many of you can see I've been given a very special outfit a friend gave it to me and and I got very excited when I saw it Because I thought wow, I'm being invited to a wedding. You know, it's something really important but then the person said well actually you're emceeing the MSF Scientific Day and Actually, if it's a wedding, it's going to be a little bit more fancy than what you're wearing Actually, I think that's kind of appropriate because some of the research that MSF does It's maybe not the most expensive garment in the shop and one of the reasons why we hold this day is Because we want to discuss the research that MSF does To try and make it better So I really encourage you if you're online to be writing comments to join in the discussion and for those of you here Also, we really welcome your questions. I Do have a poster that I have borrowed from online, which gives a guide to asking questions I do encourage you to read it while it is slightly tongue-in-cheek It does make the point that since we're limited for time today Please introduce yourself when asking questions. Please say which organization you're with and ask a short question There will be time in the breaks and lunchtime for lots of discussion. We're not asking you To give a long opinion about things. We want to hear from the speakers and ask them probing questions When I thought about this and thinking about it being Possibly like a wedding. I realized like all MSFs. It's much more like an emergency than a wedding as you can see We're starting late People are still filtering in The instructions are there, but maybe some of us like the MC haven't read the instructions. So I thought When it's an emergency we should talk we should turn to that Instructional book from MSF about what are the priorities in emergencies and It's important that we're all on the same page about them at the priorities and of course in an emergency the priorities are Water, it's a very hot day. There'll be plenty of water provided upstairs and hopefully at the back of the room later on Keep yourselves hydrated Food will be providing plenty of food during the breaks. So don't panic. There's very good food It will all be upstairs in the room above us Sanitation if you need to leave during the session no problems. Just go upstairs and on the right you'll find the bathrooms Coordination that's my role. I'm going to be trying to keep everyone to time The first session is not it's to our topics in one without a break So please bear with us. There will be plenty of time for breaks, but try not to Introduce your own breaks Also, we will have some surveillance or at least what I call surveillance Please do if you have a phone try and follow the online discussions and join in if you're tweeting Then please use the hashtag Hashtag MSF sci essay which is in in your notes There's a comments box on the live stream. So please use this as well so finally Why are we here? We are here. I Think primarily to take a chance to look at the medical work that MSF does and the evidence behind it Quite a long time ago I was privileged to start one of the first MDR TB patients on treatment in one of MSF programs here in India And I think of that patient. He was a patient who had HIV he was a patient who had suffered from stigma and wasn't allowed into many of the clinics around that program He was a patient who'd been treated for TB and had paid in private clinics to the point of having no money left He was a patient Living at home with his family who didn't know that they could be acquiring What was drug-resistant TB from him? That was a patient who had a body mass index of 13 and The program had never treated drug-resistant TB before We managed to start the treatment. The patient had many side effects, but eventually there was some successful outcome But what I like about these conferences is it's a chance to say well Why is that patient the minority because today with MDR TB with many of the problems we will talk about today? Access to the right treatment is actually only for the minority and this conference is about bringing evidence to improve access to care But secondly when we provide that kind of treatment like we see with with many diseases like the treatment We've had with Leishman Isis for many years or African sleeping sickness We actually have tools that are not fit for the job and it's research that highlights that and Helps us call for better tools more investment into research to bring better tools. I think today also reminds us that behind Every topic like antimicrobial resistance or infectious disease or whatever title we put on a session there is a patient actually hundreds of patients thousands of patients and As we are hearing the presentations today the panel discussions I want you to be challenging and asking each of the presenters But how does your research make a difference for a patient or for a program? This is about debate Taking evidence to make a difference for people and patients because the situation where people can drown in the sea Not that far from where the most powerful leaders in the world are meeting and nothing really is said about it at that conference the situation where people in Syria continue to suffer from attacks from weapons which Nobody thinks should be used in any war the situation where there are so many people who are denied passage to be able to flee from conflict or persecution and Those situations occur around the world MSF is about doctors without borders and Fundamentally, it's about a helping hand for people whether that hand comes from medical care or changing policy or bringing attention so with that little sermon out the way I wanted to move on to our first session and I'll invite Dr. Ooni Karunakara up to speak to us his bio is in the notes more than two decades as a humanitarian and a fellow from Yale. Thanks, Ooni