The World Health Organization (WHO) Global Tuberculosis Programme has created an online platform to help users find practical advice to implement digital technologies to support TB care worldwide. The platform includes easy access to guidelines and job aids developed by WHO and technical partners, as well as links to key literature and country examples. The content is organized around four functions: person-centred care, programme management, surveillance and monitoring, and eLearning. The online platform will be updated regularly with the most recent guidance and tools.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is seeking experts to serve as members of the Technical Advisory Group on dosing of TB medicines for adults and children. For further details about the advisory group, the expert profiles being sought, the process for experts to express interest, and the process of selection, click here.

The information notes complement the updated WHO guidelines and operational handbook on the management of TB in children and adolescents released in 2022.

27 June 2023 | Geneva: WHO's Global Tuberculosis Programme has initiated a process to review the evidence on TB and nutrition to update the previous WHO guidelines: Nutritional care and support for patients with tuberculosis.

Worldwide, more people are on the move than ever before, with an estimated 103 million forcibly displaced people globally including an estimated 32.5 million refugees. Refugees and other populations in humanitarian settings face considerable threats to their health, wellbeing and survival, including crowded living conditions, poverty, undernutrition, precarious legal status, discrimination and poor access to health and social protection services, all conditions in which tuberculosis (TB) thrives. In most settings, refugees are more likely to be exposed to TB, develop TB disease once exposed and have poor health, social and economic outcomes as a result of it.

8 June 2023 | Geneva -- Today the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (the Global Fund) signed a new and revised Strategic Framework for Collaboration, designed to build stronger and more resilient health systems and maximize collaboration and impact in support of country, regional and global responses to major communicable diseases. 

5 June 2023 | Geneva-- The World Health Organization (WHO) Global Tuberculosis Programme is launching a new online platform to track progress in the development of new treatment regimens, vaccines as well as operational research projects designed to improve TB prevention, treatment, and care.

Undernutrition and tobacco use are major determinants of TB globally. In 2021, of the 10.6 million people who fell ill with TB, 2.2 million were attributable to undernutrition and nearly 0.7 million to tobacco smoking. People who smoke tobacco have double the risk of TB disease, slower recovery, and a higher risk of unfavourable TB treatment outcomes, including recurrence of TB, death, and post-TB pulmonary and cardiovascular disease. Smoking cessation during TB treatment can improve treatment outcomes and has been shown to reduce the risk of TB infection and TB disease among household contacts as well. Improving food security and reducing tobacco smoking globally will therefore contribute significantly to the fight to end TB.  

Ongoing efforts to end TB were in the spotlight at the 76th World Health Assembly, held 21-30 May 2023 in Geneva, Switzerland. The theme of this year’s Health Assembly was: WHO at 75: Saving lives, driving health for all.

The UN General Assembly will hold the second High-Level Meeting on TB on 22 September 2023. The application process for special accreditation to attend the meeting is now open. The deadline for registration is 19 June 2023.