The TB Europe Coalition launches the Fight TB 2015 campaign to ensure that European leaders step up their response to TB to save millions of lives.

Between 18^th and 19^th November, TB Europe Coalition members, RESULTS UK and Global Health Advocates, had the exciting opportunity to welcome Marina to Brussels to brief decision-makers on the severity of the TB epidemic (TB) in the European Union (EU). Marina fought two years to defeat multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) and is now a great advocate on the issue.  By bringing the perspective of MDR-TB patients, Marina highlighted the urgent need for action at regional level to fight TB and ensure the rights of TB patients.

RUSSIAN VERSION BELOW

On 10 October, prominent speakers were invited to the Lithuanian Permanent Representation to the EU to brief Health Attachés of the different member states’ representations in Brussels on the issue of Tuberculosis and Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis in Europe. WHO Europe, the ECDC, the STOP TB Partnership, the TB Europe Coalition, the European Commission and 10 member states (France, Estonia, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Greece, Croatia, Hungary, Belgium, Latvia and Lithuania) were present to discuss the topic and potential for future EU action. Here is a summary of the main points that were addressed:

Azerbaijan is one of the 18 high priority countries for Tuberculosis (TB) Control in the WHO European Region and one of the 27 high MDR-TB high burden countries in the world. In 2012, Azerbaijan notified a total of 8140 TB cases, 2800 of them were estimated with MDR-TB.

On 3^rd October 2014, the TB Europe Coalition was invited by WHO Europe to represent civil society working on tuberculosis across the European region at the first meeting of the Advisory Committee for the development of the “Tuberculosis Action Plan for the WHO European Region, 2016-2020”.

Resistance to anti-tuberculosis (TB) medicines is a major public health threat in most countries of the former Soviet Union. As no representative and quality-assured information on the magnitude of this problem existed in Belarus, a survey was conducted in the city of Minsk, the capital of Belarus. Between November 2009 and December 2010, 156 consecutively diagnosed new and 68 previously treated culture-positive TB patients residing in Minsk were enrolled in the survey.

Kyrgyzstan is among the 27 high burden multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) countries in the world and also among the WHO European Region 18 TB High Priority Countries. Upon request by the Minister of Health of Kyrgyzstan and as instructed by the Director of the WHO Regional Office for Europe, the WHO Regional Office for Europe, TB and M/XDR-TB Programme including the WHO Country Office in collaboration with the National TB Control Programme (NTP) conducted a midterm programme review of TB prevention, control and care activities during the 30 June-5 July 2014 period. Nonna Turusbekova, a temporary adviser to WHO, who is also a member of TBEC steering committee, assessed the engagement of civil society in TB response.

Recently, Oxana Rucsineanu, a member of the TB Europe Coalition Steering Committee, was invited to take part in the WHO Review of the National TB Programme for TB Control in Armenia. Oxana’s invite follows calls from civil society organisations towards the WHO to include a civil society or key affected voice in these NTP reviews. With her extensive experience both of TB itself and of the need to include the civil society voice in TB programmes, Oxana was well placed to take part in this visit to Armenia. Here Oxana shares some of her findings and recommendations from the visit.

This post is comes from our partners in Tajikistan and tells the story of Shamsiya and her family experience with TB. This story was written by our partners in Tajikistan, Safar and Abdusamd.