admin The new guidelines and tools are released on World TB Day. Each year World TB Day is examined on March 24 to raise public awareness and understanding of the world’s deadly and infectious killer: TB.
New World Health Organization (WHO) guidance will help countries accelerate efforts to stop people with tuberculosis (TB) under the theme “It’s Time”, the spotlight this year is on urgently accelerating the preventive treatment to the sick people.
A quarter of the world‘s population is estimated to be infected with TB bacteria. These people are neither sick nor contagious. However, they are at greater risk of developing TB disease, especially those with weakened immunity. Offering them TB preventive treatment will not only protect them from becoming sick, but also cut down on the risk of transmission in the community. As we mark World TB Day 2020, the disease remains the world’s top infectious killer.
“COVID-19 is highlighting just how vulnerable people with lung diseases and weakened immune systems can be,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “The world committed to end TB by 2030; improving prevention is key to making this happen. Millions of people need to be able to take TB preventive treatment to stop the onset of disease, avert suffering and save lives”.
TB remains the top cause of death among people with HIV. TB preventive treatment works synergistically with antiretroviral therapy to prevent TB and save lives. Reinvigorated efforts by governments, health services, partners, donors and civil society will be needed to increase access to TB preventive treatment to the levels targeted. The new consolidated WHO guidelines come with an operational handbook to help guide countries step-by-step as they take TB preventive treatment to scale. This includes guidance on how to prioritize and invest from demand creation for TB prevention to supervision and monitoring of the programme. The handbook is also accompanied by an innovative mobile application “Prevent TB” ,to help health-care workers manage TB preventive treatment in their communities. Its online dashboard allows programme managers to visualize and monitor data in real time. The application can be customized by countries to suit their specific setting, and is currently being adopted in India and Philippines.
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