Accessed: 03.03.2020

Tuberculosis (TB) is the deadliest infectious disease in most low- and middle-income countries, claiming more than 4,000 lives each day. The unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic has seriously impacted people with pre-existing health conditions. People with TB are usually more vulnerable to other infectio ... ns, including the novel coronavirus, due to pre-existing lung damage. They are also at higher risk of developing complications from COVID-19. more

The WHO End TB Strategy aims to end the global TB epidemic by 2030, in alignment with Goal 3 of the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Member States of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN committed to ending the TB epidemic through adoption of WHO’s End TB Strateg ... y and the UN SDGs in 2014 and 2015, respectivel Almost half of the deaths worldwide caused by TB in 2019 occurred in the WHO South-East Asia Region, home to around a quarter of the global population. Maintaining robust progress in this Region is therefore essential if the global goal of ending the TB epidemic is to be realized. Despite substantial gains made in the Region, the threat to health worldwide posed by the COVID-19 pandemic has the potential to reverse these gains and eclipse the focus on the global TB emergency. While continuing to tackle COVID-19-related challenges, countries will need to rapidly and urgently deploy supplementary measures to address the large numbers of missed cases, poor treatment outcomes and, potentially, a higher TB burden. The Regional Strategic Plan towards Ending TB in the Region 2021–2025 clearly articulates priority interventions, analyses the challenges, bottlenecks and opportunities, and focuses on implementation considerations in the Region. more

Guidelines for the care and treatment of persons diagnosed with chronic hepatitis C virus infection

Technical and operational ‘how-to’: practical considerations

Report of a WHO technical consultation meeting Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) showed that global commitment and collective action could significantly reduce the disease burdens of three deadly communicable diseases: HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria. The MDGs helped focus efforts on these three deadly diseases and leveraged ... disease-specific programmes and financing, thus achieving significant progress. more