#EndTB Webinar: From Policy to Practice: Rolling out new WHO guidelines on rapid diagnostics and drug-resistant TB treatment

#EndTB Webinar: From Policy to Practice: Rolling out new WHO guidelines on rapid diagnostics and drug-resistant TB treatment

A special #EndTB Webinar was organized by the World Health Organization (WHO) on 9 July 2020 to provide key updates on recently released new WHO guidance on rapid diagnostics and drug-resistant TB treatment. The aim of the webinar was to facilitate a better understanding of the guidance to enable its rapid uptake in countries by national programmes and other key stakeholders. This will translate to earlier access to quality diagnosis and treatment, and better outcomes for the millions affected by TB and drug-resistant TB.

Agenda overview:

Moderator: Dr Tereza Kasaeva, Director, WHO Global TB Programme

Speakers:     

  • Dr Matteo Zignol, Unit Head a.i. Prevention, diagnosis, treatment, care and innovation, WHO Global TB Programme
  • Mr Ezio Tavora dos Santos Filho, WHO Civil Society Taskforce on TB
  • Dr Lucica Ditiu, Executive Director, Stop TB Partnership
  • Dr Mohammed Yassin, Senior TB Adviser, Global Fund
  • Dr Mukadi Ya Diul, Medical Officer Infectious Disease Office/Tuberculosis Division,Global Health Bureau, USAID
  • Dr Alena Skrahina, Deputy Director of the Republican Scientific and Practical Center for Pulmonology and TB and Deputy National TB Program Manager, Belarus
  • Dr Norbert O. Ndjeka, Director DR-TB and TB/HIV, Department of Health, South Africa
  • Dr K. S. Sachdeva, Deputy Director General, TB Elimination Programme, India

Closing remarks: Dr Ren Minghui, WHO Assistant Director General, UHC, Communicable and Non-Communicable Diseases

Watch the Webinar:

Background:
Globally, diagnosis of TB and drug-resistant TB remains a challenge with a third of people with TB and two-thirds of people with drug-resistant TB not being detected. Appropriate treatment of drug-resistant TB with all-oral regimens also needs to be made available to to all who need it in line with WHO’s quest to achieve universal health coverage, and to avert deaths from a preventable, treatable and curable disease. This is also essential to achieve the targets of the political declaration of the UN high-level meeting, the WHO End TB Strategy, the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and the triple billion targets of WHO’s General Programme of Work.

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