Since February this year, doctors and nurses trained by WHO to use a web-based patient health information and guidance tool on a handheld tablet have been providing primary health care services to people in eastern Ukraine. Through the tablet, medical professionals have access to urgent care protocols and procedures based on WHO norms and standards, tailored to the Ukrainian context. The tool was developed to provide people-centred, real-time, comprehensive information and guidance. It can also give early warnings through syndromic and disease surveillance mechanisms.

In September 2011 the Consolidated Action Plan to Prevent and Combat Multidrug- and Extensively Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis in the WHO European Region, 2011–2015 and its accompanying resolution EUR/R61/R7 were endorsed at the sixty-first session of the Regional Committee (Baku, Azerbaijan, 12–15 September 2011). 

The National Tuberculosis Programme (NTP) in Belarus, in collaboration with WHO and with the support of the United Nations Development Programme; the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria (the Global Fund); and Médecins Sans Frontières, organized a workshop on "The use of bedaquiline to treat XDR-TB" on 7 May 2015 at the Republican Scientific and Practical Centre for Pulmonology and Tuberculosis in Minsk, Belarus. The training was conducted by WHO and national experts from NTP and the National Pharmacovigilance Centre and was attended by 28 participants. 

The Plan will be submitted for endorsement by the WHO Regional Committee for Europe in September 2015 along with an accompanying resolution.

In her keynote speech at the 1st Eastern Partnership Ministerial Conference on Tuberculosis and Its Multi-Drug Resistance, held on 30–31 March in Riga, Latvia, Dr Zsuzsanna Jakab, WHO Regional Director for Europe, declared: "Europe is in a position to lead prevention, care and the innovation of new tools in the fight against TB, and to pave the way for TB elimination. It is only through regional collaboration and cooperation that we can achieve this goal, so that our children will live in a world free of TB." 

As the number of new medicines introduced in Europe rises, governments are finding it increasingly difficult to afford them, according to a comprehensive study released today by the WHO Regional Office for Europe. The study illustrates the challenges for national health systems, with specific examples, and shows that few countries in the WHO European Region have mechanisms in place to evaluate the cost–effectiveness of new drugs; this hampers the value-assessment and decision-making processes.

Tuberculosis cases down by 6% in 2013 – pace too slow to reach elimination this century. Rates of MDR-TB remain at very high levels, making the European Region the most affected area of the entire world.

The Joint Tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis Programme (JTH) held the second meeting of the Advisory Committee for the new TB Action Plan of the WHO European Region, 2016–2020. The meeting was held on Wednesday 4 March 2015 at the Regional Office in Copenhagen, Denmark. The Committee includes representatives from high- and low-TB-incidence countries, patient representatives and key partner organizations, such as the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM) and WHO headquarters.The meeting was an important milestone for reviewing the strategic directions, targets and areas of interventions of the new Action Plan, as well as inputs received from the European Technical Advisory Group on Tuberculosis Control (TAG-TB) and the Regional Consultation meetings held at the Regional Office 25-27 November 2014. 

Several metric tonnes of medical aid procured by WHO reached Donetsk in Ukraine this week as part of the convoy of humanitarian aid delivered by UN agencies. WHO’s contribution consisted of HIV and tuberculosis medical products, HIV test systems and drugs to treat infections in people with weak immunity.

The members of the health cluster for Ukraine, under WHO’s leadership, came together on 11 February to discuss status reports from local field offices and strengthen the response to the growing humanitarian crisis. The reports included information on the provision of health care to children, the activities of medical emergency public health units (MEPUs), Roma communities and centres for internally displaced persons (IDPs), and updates on health information tools and needs assessments. The following briefly highlights WHO activities in the region.