Event highlights
03 April 2024
The WHO Country Office collaborated with partners at the Polish Ministry of Health, the Institute of Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases, and the Polish Pulmonary Association to host a regional summit attended in person and online by over 300 national and regional tuberculosis (TB) health leaders and practitioners from Poland, Czechia, Hungary and Ukraine.
Participants came together in Warsaw for the opportunity for scientific and policy exchange, with lively discussion between decision-makers and those at the forefront of treating patients. Poland, like other Member States of the WHO European Region, signed a declaration in 2014 committing to the shared goal of Ending TB by 2030. Despite excellent progress in the first 5 years, TB treatment in Poland, and in many countries, was stalled by the COVID-19 pandemic, with detection rates falling by 36% between 2019 and 2020. This meant that 1 in 3 patients were not diagnosed, and their treatment was subsequently delayed.
TB treatment is at a pivotal moment in Poland, which has recently adopted the new WHO guidelines recommending new shorter treatment regimens and the possibility for patients with drug-resistant forms of TB to receive ambulatory treatment. The change was partly brought about to meet the needs of Ukrainian refugees fleeing the war. Ukraine is among the countries in eastern Europe and central Asia with a high drug-resistant TB burden and has been at the forefront of adopting new treatment and TB control approaches. Poland, like many western European countries, has a much lower TB burden, but faced with challenges around treatment gaps, increased population displacement and migration, is now prioritizing TB treatment and control. Following 2 successful pilot projects of the new regimen, there are now plans to roll out the implementation of the new ambulatory model of service delivery and treatment regimens nationwide.
“The success of the pilot project will have far-reaching benefits for patients, but such radical changes in treatment require flexibility and compromise,” explains Dr Nino Berdzuli, WHO Representative in Poland and WHO Special Envoy to Refugee-Receiving Countries. “The new drugs are highly effective, well tolerated by patients, and require shorter treatment and fewer pills. But because Poland is a high-income country, the drugs are much more expensive there than in Ukraine, representing a key barrier to access.
“Bringing health authorities together with front-line health professionals who work directly with patients offers also opportunities for development of practical and workable solutions for better service delivery for patients.”
Medics attending the summit were keen to emphasize the benefits of the new regimen and ensure that despite the increased drug costs, decision-makers understood how the new regimen benefits patients and that the quicker regimen meant shorter and less expensive periods of hospitalization.
Dr Agnieszka Zygmunt, a pulmonologist at the Lung Disease Hospital in Jaroszowiec, has been treating patients enrolled in the pilot project. “Our hospital has started an innovative programme for the treatment of multidrug-resistant TB with the latest drug regimens. In the past, patients were treated for a very long time and did not tolerate the long hospital stays well. Treatment with previous drug regimens was much more burdensome due to the duration, the number of drugs administered, and the side-effects of the drugs with which the patients were treated. The patients on the new drug regimens are treated with fewer drugs, experience fewer side-effects, and can return home to normal life, which is probably the most important thing.”
Dr Askar Yedilbayev, TB Unit lead for the WHO European Region, praised the interest, involvement and engagement of Dr Zygmunt and others in the medical community who are treating TB. “People were asking questions and challenging perspectives. This is heartening to see – it’s how we know that people have a close interest in TB and that they are not indifferent to TB patients.”
Dr Adam Nowiński of the Institute of Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases expressed his satisfaction at the collaborative nature of the event, “I am very glad that we managed to organize this year’s TB Summit under the auspices of WHO and friendly organizations, including the Polish Respiratory Society and the Ministry of Health as an institution supporting the Institute, because it’s crucial that we pool our collective efforts to defeat this disease. These meetings are a platform for the participants to exchange information, share experiences, and develop best practices that can be introduced in Poland and in other countries.”
Yana Terleieva, who works for the Ukrainian Ministry of Health, gave an account of the challenges faced by those on the front line of treating TB in a warzone. Despite the difficulties of providing sustained treatment in an active warzone, Ukraine remains fully committed to TB control and alignment with WHO recommendations, extensively collaborating and exchanging patient data with refugee-hosting countries. For Dr Terleieva, the international aspect of the summit proved particularly useful. “I learned about the different approaches presented by clinicians, professors and international experts from Poland, Czechia, Hungary and Ukraine. There were many different perspectives, but what united everyone was the desire to find better and faster ways to end TB once and for all.”
Dr Berdzuli highlighted political commitment as a key factor to Ending TB by 2030. “During the two-day national TB summit, the Ministry of Health of Poland and the key relevant partners from Poland’s national health institutions working on lung diseases and TB control have shown clear resolve and engagement to tackle TB. We are very fortunate to have such a productive relationship with Polish health leaders, who have also demonstrated their high political commitment to tackling TB at the High-level Meeting on Tuberculosis at the UN General Assembly in September 2023.”
Event notice
21 March 2024
The WHO Country Office in Poland, in collaboration with the WHO Regional Office for Europe, the Polish Respiratory Society and the Institute of Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases, is hosting TB Summit 2024 on 21–22 March 2024 in Warsaw, Poland.
The event will bring together more than 160 participants. On 21 March, the agenda will have an international focus, covering the situation in the wider European Region, including the experience of Polish TB specialists and representatives of both refugee-hosting countries and Ukraine. On 22 March, the meeting will primarily concentrate on the Polish national TB agenda and actions needed for better preparedness and response.
The conference aims to update stakeholders on policy changes in Poland, sharing findings and recommendations from the TB Epidemiological and Programme Review, and showcasing the experiences of those implementing TB pilot projects. The summit will enable leading experts, scientists, policy-makers, professionals, and other stakeholders to enhance and facilitate the implementation of knowledge in the field of TB screening, prevention, diagnostics, treatment and care. It will also provide a forum for sharing the latest scientific practices and improvements to ensure a more effective TB response in Poland and in the Region.
The programme is designed to encompass a wide range of activities, including keynote lectures, speeches and panel discussions featuring leading Polish and international specialists.