Crisis of confidence in the WHO's ability to produce normative guidance for the treatment of RR-/MDR-TB
Advocates request an urgent in-person meeting with the WHO leadership to discuss concrete actions to address technical and guideline development process-related issues previously raised.
On 5 June 2019, TB advocates sent a second
open letter
to Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World
Health Organization (WHO), as a follow-up to the initial
open letter
sent on 23 April 2019 raising multiple serious concerns about
the WHO guidelines for the treatment of rifampicin-resistant and
multidrug-resistant TB (RR-/MDR-TB).
“We acknowledge your
response
and participated in the webinar held May 22, however, the
specific technical issues we raised remain unaddressed. There
is a growing crisis of confidence in the WHO’s ability
to produce normative guidance for the treatment of RR-/MDR-TB.
This crisis is especially urgent as we expect data to more
regularly emerge from programs and clinical trials nearing
completion.”
The signatories requested an urgent in-person
meeting with Dr. Tedros and the newly appointed Chief Scientific
Officer, Dr. Swaminathan, to discuss concrete actions that can
be taken to address: (1) the technical and guideline development
process-related issues that have been raised; (2) apparent
technical assistance and other support deficiencies; and (3)
strategies to mitigate the continued subjugation of people with
RR-/MDR-TB to unnecessary harms resulting from the lack of
clarity in the current WHO guidelines for the treatment of
RR-/MDR-TB.
To read the full letter, click
here.
