The World Health Organization (WHO) convened an Information Session webinar for civil society representatives to provide an update on the WHO TB guidelines development. The webinar was organized by the WHO Global Tuberculosis Programme. The Session was held on 19 December 2019, as part of an ongoing dialogue between WHO and civil society representatives. Over 100 representatives from civil society, partners and other stakeholders registered for the webinar.
The information session was opened by Tereza Kasaeva, Director of the WHO Global TB Programme. Matteo Zignol, Team Leader, WHO Global TB Programme, gave an overview of the guidelines development process and presented updates on the development of three TB guidelines: on treatment of latent TB infection, treatment of drug-resistant TB, and molecular assays intended as initial tests for the diagnosis of pulmonary and extrapulmonary TB in adults and children. He described the principles behind guideline development and the background for the update of these guidelines, the new data, the timeline and next steps towards finalizations of the guidelines and accompanying implementation guides. The presentations were followed by a Question & Answer session. The session was closed by Tereza Kasaeva, who thanked everyone for participation and reiterated the need of WHO’s close collaboration with civil society.
Questions discussed during the webinar included:
- Civil society and community engagement in advancing the TB agenda at national and subnational levels
- Timeline for finalization of the guidelines
- Rapid Communication on key changes to the treatment of drug-resistant tuberculosis
- The role of randomized control trials vs observational studies and operational research to generate evidence for guidelines development
- The opportunity for civil society representatives to be engaged in TB guidelines development
- Feedback on public comments received