WHO launches guideline on nutritional care and support for TB patients

18 February| GENEVA - Undernutrition is an important risk factor for TB and TB causes undernutrition. This bi-directional association leads to a high prevalence of undernutrition among people with TB. Proper TB treatment helps restore normal weight and nutrition. However, the time to full nutritional recovery can be long and many TB patients are still undernourished after TB treatment is completed. Therefore, it is important to do a nutritional assessment at the time of TB diagnosis and provide nutritional care accordingly. To this end, WHO has issued guideline on nutritional care and support for people with TB.

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27 January 2014 | Geneva | This week the Executive Board of the World Health Organization (WHO) reviewed the WHO proposed global strategy and targets for tuberculosis (TB) prevention, care and control after 2015. The Executive Board endorsed and recommended, the post-2015 global TB strategy and targets and a resolution (in support of the strategy and targets) for consideration and adoption by the Sixty-seventh World Health Assembly (WHA) which meets in May 2014. Please click below to access the:

• Resolution developed by the Executive Board
• WHO report on the proposed post-2015 TB Strategy and targets (as presented to the Executive Board)
• Short summary of the proposed post-2015 TB Strategy and targets

2 December 2013 | Geneva | On November 22, 2013, the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) of the European Medicine Agency (EMA) has recommended the granting of a conditional marketing authorisation for delamanid, a new therapeutic agent, as part of an appropriate combination regimen for pulmonary multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) in adult patients when an effective treatment regimen cannot otherwise be composed for reasons of resistance or tolerability. WHO aims to initiate a process of review of available data on the efficacy and safety of this compound, as well as on supplementary data being requested from independant experts. Based on that review, WHO will determine whether to develop interim guidance on the use of this medicine for the treatment of MDR-TB.

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LONDON | 23 OCTOBER 2013 | Tuberculosis (TB) treatment has saved the lives of more than 22 million people, according to the WHO Global tuberculosis report 2013 published today. The new data confirm that the world is on track to meet the 2015 UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) target of reversing TB incidence, along with the target of a 50% reduction in the mortality rate by 2015 (compared to 1990). A special Countdown to 2015 supplement to this year’s report provides full information on the progress to the international TB targets. It details if the world and countries with a high burden of TB are “on-track” or “off-track” and what can be done rapidly to accelerate impact as the 2015 deadline approaches.

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• Download the Global TB Report