WHO Executive Board supports TB control resolution on progress and long-term planning

31 January 2007
Departmental update
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All Member States of WHO are to be urged to develop and implement long-term plans for TB prevention and control, in line with the Global Plan to Stop TB 2006-2015, and in the context of overall health development plans, under recommendations that will now go forward for consideration of adoption by the World Health Assembly in May 2007.

The WHO Executive Board, which met in Geneva, 22-30 January 2007, reviewed final outcomes of the 2005 TB control targets (60% case detection and 84% treatment success) and recommended to the World Health Assembly the adoption of a resolution on progress and long-term planning in tuberculosis control. The actions in the resolution are aimed at accelerating progress towards the international targets for TB control for 2015 through the full implementation of the Stop TB Strategy.

The resolution urges WHO Members States to:

  • develop and implement long-term TB plans in line with the Global Plan to Stop TB;
  • use all possible financing mechanisms to fill the funding gaps identified in the Global Plan to Stop TB;
  • and declare, where appropriate, TB as an emergency, and step up action required to halt the spread of XDR-TB (extensively drug-resistant TB).

The resolution also requested WHO to:

  • intensify support to Member States;
  • strengthen support to countries affected by XDR-TB;
  • enhance its leadership within the Stop TB Partnership in its coordination of efforts to implement the Global Plan;
  • strengthen TB monitoring and evaluation;
  • support efforts on laboratory capacity development;
  • and enhance its role in tuberculosis research.

The Executive Board's discussions on the resolution coincided with a visit to WHO headquarters by the UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy to Stop TB, Dr Jorge Sampaio, who signalled his support for the actions outlined in the resolution. While in Geneva, he also met the new WHO Director-General, Dr Margaret Chan, and her Deputy Director-General, Dr Anarfi Asamoa-Baah, to discuss global TB control issues.