The World Health Organization (WHO) released the sixth edition of the Guidance for the surveillance of drug resistance in tuberculosis aiming to assist national TB programs in developing the strongest possible mechanisms of surveillance for drug resistance in TB, building on more than 25 years of global experience.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is convening a Guideline Development Group (GDG) to advise on updates needed to its recommendations on the treatment of drug susceptible tuberculosis (TB).

The World Health Organization Regional Office for the Western Pacific released a report summarizing current evidence on TB outbreaks in schools and contextualizing the information within the Western Pacific Region. Case studies from four countries highlighted the diverse range of experiences in the Region. As many countries have minimal experience in preventing and responding to TB outbreaks in schools, evidence from past outbreaks and case studies from a few countries could inform future responses.

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.

The World Health Organization (WHO) Global TB Program has initiated a process to conduct systematic reviews for the collection and assessment of available evidence on the prevalence of viral hepatitis B and C among patients with TB and multidrug-resistant or rifampicin-resistant TB (MDR/RR-TB) and whether the concurrent treatment of drug-resistant TB and hepatitis C is safe and increases the likelihood of treatment success and reduces unfavourable treatment outcomes.

The World Health Organization (WHO) Global TB Program is announcing a call for experts to serve as members of the Technical Advisory Group on TB Diagnostics and Laboratory Strengthening to advise WHO on technical aspects related to the assessment and implementation of TB diagnostic tools and TB diagnostic strategies.

The World Health Organization (WHO) Global TB Program has initiated a process to update the consolidated guidelines on the treatment of drug-resistant TB (DR-TB). The WHO Global TB Program is seeking support from independent researchers, academic institutions or other entities with relevant expertise and experience in systematic review and statistical analysis to perform the synthesis and analysis of the available data on new DR-TB treatment regimens for the guideline update.

The World Health Organization (WHO) released a special edition of its newsletter in commemoration of World TB Day, 24 March, highlighting #EndTB messages and statements from global leaders, video recordings of conducted events, released materials and documents, and other related news and updates from the organization.

An estimated 1.4 million fewer people received care for TB in 2020 than in 2019 - a reduction of 21% from 2019, according to preliminary data compiled by the World Health Organization.

16 March 2021, Geneva | The World Health Organization Global Tuberculosis Programme has initiated a process for the establishment of Global individual patient data platform for drug-resistant tuberculosis treatment (DR-TB IPD). The DR-TB IPD is a shared platform and collaborative initiative to generate reliable evidence on drug-resistant TB treatment to inform future TB treatment guidelines and be available for researchers to analyse. The purpose of the DR-TB IPD is to facilitate pooling of individual patient data issued from researchers, local or national databases in the context of drug-resistant TB treatment and facilitate policy update, development and public health research. It will be supported by the WHO Global TB Programme and maintained by the selected Data Curator. Data Curator is the entity in charge of maintenance, curation and hosting of the DR-TB IPD.