The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the European Respiratory Society (ERS) have developed 21 patient-centred standards to guide clinicians and public health workers in their work to ensure optimal diagnosis, treatment and prevention of tuberculosis (TB) in Europe. In 2017, the European Union Standards for Tuberculosis Care (ESTC) were updated to incorporate the most recent technological developments and international recommendations for TB diagnosis, treatment and prevention.
The document, translated in all European Union languages, can be downloaded here.
On 17 August 2018, the World Health Organization (WHO) released a rapid communication document, ‘Key changes to treatment of multidrug- and rifampicin-resistant tuberculosis’. In the communication, WHO recommends a revised grouping and ranking of the drugs used to treat multidrug-resistant TB. This revision affects the EU-specific requirements of Standard 12 included in the ESTC. Consequently, a correspondence ‘European Union standard for tuberculosis care on treatment of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis following new World Health Organization recommendations’ addressing the changes to ESTC 12 was published in European Respiratory Journal.
Source: ECDC