The seventh meeting of the Strategic and Technical Advisory Group for TB (STAG-TB) has concluded with a series of recommendations to WHO, including endorsements of:
- the planned global response to MDR-TB / XDR-TB;
- the ongoing response to the TB emergencies in Africa and Europe;
- the use of liquid culture for TB diagnosis;
- a revised TB case definition;
- WHO's planned role in the Stop TB Partnership's TB research movement:
- WHO guidance and plans to support community involvement in TB care, control and prevention.
STAG-TB recognized "that global TB control is at an important turning point, with stabilization of, or declines of, TB incidence in most WHO Regions. However, the African and European TB emergencies, TB/HIV and MDR-TB/ XDR-TB stand out as enormous challenges to TB control and demand urgent attention and interventions both globally and at the country level, bolstered by innovative and targeted research on new tools and strategies for control."
STAG-TB's mission is to contribute to global tuberculosis control by providing state-of the-art scientific and technical guidance to WHO. International experts and implementers in TB care and control, research and civil society participated in the meeting, held 11-13 June 2007 at WHO headquarters in Geneva. A full report from STAG-TB will be available next month.