The report of the fifteenth meeting of the WHO Strategic and Technical Advisory Group for Tuberculosis (STAG-TB) is now available. The June 2015 meeting was organized by the WHO Global TB Programme, which provides the Secretariat for this premier advisory body for WHO's work in fighting TB. At the meeting, 20 STAG members were joined by 142 other participants, including technical, financing, civil society and academic partners, as well as WHO staff from across all six WHO regions.
The report provides the recommendations made by STAG-TB to WHO, including relating to:
- Finalization of guidance to countries to support adaptation, implementation, and promotion of the End TB Strategy;
- Process for assessing achievement of 2015 TB targets;
- Revision of the WHO list of high TB burden countries;
- Policy, programmatic and funding implications of recent TB prevalence surveys;
- WHO’s role in facilitating effective use of digital health innovations in ending TB;
- Finalization of a Global Action Framework for TB Research;
- Progress in developing WHO's TB-HIV strategy.
About STAG-TB
STAG-TB, with 22 members appointed by the WHO's Director-General, advises the World Health Organization on its full work programme on TB. Since 2001, it has provided critical guidance to WHO on its TB strategy, policy, technical assistance and monitoring and evaluation efforts. It helped WHO frame and develop the new End TB Strategy, which was approved by the World Health Assembly in May, 2014. Dr Charles Daley, a world expert on multidrug-resistant TB, currently chairs the STAG-TB.