20 June 2011 | Geneva | The eleventh meeting of the WHO Strategic and Technical Advisory Group for Tuberculosis (STAG-TB) was held on 20-22 June and resulted in recommendations relating to priority areas of WHO's tuberculosis work.
At the meeting at WHO Headquarters, STAG-TB members, joined by other WHO partners, reviewed and provided guidance on several key issues affecting TB prevention, care and control today. These included WHO's Stop TB Department restructuring and prioritization along its core functions; WHO’s new work programme to support expanded engagement of civil society organizations in community care; process for development of targeted TB screening guidance; development of policies to enable safe and rapid adoption of new anti-TB drugs in 2012-2013; the new framework for global support to MDR-TB management scale up); and progress in supporting roll-out of Xpert MTB/RIF (a rapid diagnostic TB test that was endorsed by WHO in 2010. The WHO STAG-TB 2011 Meeting Report will be available soon here where previous STAG-TB reports are available.
STAG-TB comprises 22 experts from diverse fields and regions who are appointed by WHO’s Director-General to provide WHO independent advice on all policy, strategy and technical matters relating to WHO’s TB work.