WHO announces updated definitions of TB treatment outcomes
8 April 2021, Geneva | The definitions of tuberculosis (TB) treatment outcomes have been revised by the World Health Organization (WHO)’s Global Tuberculosis Programme. New definitions of treatment outcomes will standardise the assessment of treatment outcomes for all TB patients and all treatment regimens regardless of drug-resistance status, type of drugs used or duration of treatment.
Standardized treatment outcome definitions for TB have been a
feature of WHO policies and national TB surveillance systems for
many years and have allowed monitoring of TB treatment outcomes
over time at national and global levels. Currently, treatment
success – for drug-susceptible TB (DS-TB) or with
drug-resistant TB (DR-TB) – is one of the top 10
indicators in WHO’s End TB Strategy.
“The new definitions will enable effective assessment of
treatment outcomes for people with TB and facilitate
programme monitoring” said Dr Tereza Kasaeva, Director of
WHO’s Global TB Programme. “We urge national
TB programmes to transition to these new definitions therefore
simplifying and streamlining country recording and reporting
systems.”
The new definitions of treatment outcomes will apply from 2021.
These will be included in the 2021 revision of WHO’s
Definitions and reporting framework for tuberculosis. The
definitions will also need to be adopted for programmatic
implementation, and for use in registration and reporting to
monitor progress towards ending TB. National TB programmes will
need to orient their staff and surveillance systems to
accommodate the new definitions.
The definitions were updated following a consultation convened
by WHO’s Global TB Programme in November 2020 that brought
together around 70 participants, representing countries,
bilateral and multilateral agencies, international
organizations, nongovernmental organizations, civil society and
academia.
Global TB monitoring and reporting are expected to reflect the
updated treatment outcome definitions in 2022. This will give
country programmes time to update their registration and
reporting systems to use the new definitions during 2021.
Countries will be requested to report data according to the new
definitions in the 2022 round of global TB collection, expected
to start in April 2022. In countries where the new definitions
have not been adopted by 2022, allowances will be made to enable
reporting of outcomes according to the old definitions.
Source:
WHO
