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Table
Indicator name:
Tuberculosis treatment success rate: previously treated TB cases
Short name:
TB retreatment success rate
Data type:
Percent
Indicator Id:
1361
Topic:
Health service coverage
Rationale:
Treatment success is an indicator of the performance of national TB control programmes. In addition to the obvious benefit to individual patients, successful treatment of infectious cases of TB is essential to prevent the spread of the infection. Detecting and successfully treating a large proportion of TB cases should have an immediate impact on TB prevalence and mortality. By reducing transmission, successfully treating the majority of cases will also affect, with some delay, the incidence of disease.
Definition:
The proportion of cases with previous TB treatment history registered under a national TB control programme in a given year that successfully completed treatment, whether with or without bacteriological evidence of success (“cured” or “treatment completed” respectively). At the end of treatment, each patient is assigned one of the following six mutually exclusive treatment outcomes: cured; completed; died; failed; defaulted; and transferred out with outcome unknown. The proportions of cases assigned to these outcomes, plus any additional cases registered for treatment but not assigned to an outcome, add up to 100% of cases registered.
Method of measurement
Treatment success rates are calculated from cohort data (outcomes in registered patients) as the proportion of  cases with previous TB treatment history registered under a national TB control programme in a given year that successfully completed treatment, whether with (“cured”) or without (“treatment completed”) bacteriologic evidence of success. The treatment outcomes of TB cases registered for treatment are reported annually by countries to WHO using a web-based data collection system. See the WHO global tuberculosis control report. The treatment outcomes of TB cases reported by countries follow the WHO recommendations on definitions of outcomes, they are internationally comparable and there is no need for any adjustment. Because treatment for TB lasts 6–8 months, there is a delay in assessing treatment outcomes. Each year, national TB control programmes report to WHO the number of cases of TB diagnosed in the preceding year, and the outcomes of treatment for the cohort of patients who started treatment a year earlier.
M&E Framework:
Output
Method of estimation:
Reported by countries.
Method of estimation of global and regional aggregates:
 Regional and global estimates are produced by aggregating national estimates (e.g. to calculate the global treatment success rate of cases with previous TB treatment history, the sum of number of cases with previous TB treatment history cured and/or completed in individual countries is divided by total number of cases with previous TB treatment history registered for treatment in a given year).
Preferred data sources:
Surveillance systems; All references to Kosovo should be understood to be in the context of the United Nations Security Council resolution 1244 (1999)
Patient record system
Unit of Measure:
Percent
Expected frequency of data dissemination:
Annual
Expected frequency of data collection:
Annual
Contact person email:
tbdata@who.int
Name:
TB data enquiries
Links:
Treatment of Tuberculosis: guidelines for national programmes
WHO TB data
The Global Plan to Stop TB 2011 - 2015
Global tuberculosis control report
Indicator Metadata Registry List
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