World Health Organization

This manual outlines a global strategy for the development and strengthening of TB laboratory networks. The strategy recognizes the need to upgrade existing laboratory services and to strengthen/build capacity to perform culture and drug susceptibility testing (DST) in areas experiencing a high burden of acid-fast bacilli (AFB) smear-negative TB associated with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and to support DOTS-Plus projects.

These guidelines for laboratory services are contained in a series of three manuals, two of which are focused on the technical aspects of tuberculosis microscopy and culture and a third which deals with laboratory management, including aspects such as laboratory safety and proficiency testing. These manuals have been developed for use in low-and middle-income countries with high tuberculosis prevalence and incidence rates. Not only are they targeted to everyday laboratory use, but also for incorporation in teaching and training of laboratory and other health care staff.

Adequate ventilation can reduce the transmission of infection in health-care settings. Natural ventilation can be one of the effective environmental measures to reduce the risk of spread of infections in health care.

This guideline first defines ventilation and then natural ventilation. It explores the design requirements for natural ventilation in the context of infection control, describing the basic principles of design, construction, operation and maintenance for an effective natural ventilation system to control infection in health-care settings.

This report contains an expert assessment of the current crisis in the global health workforce and ambitious proposals to tackle it over the next ten years.

This document guides NTPs on how to engage all relevant health care providers in TB control and thereby promote the use of evidence-based, International Standards for TB Care. The experience and evidence on scaling up and sustaining PPM is now clearly emerging. The authors hope that this document will help countries to scale up PPM DOTS more rapidly and contribute significantly to achieving the TB-related Millennium Development Goal.

The questionnaire is a survey instrument that can be used to determine which health-care staff are involved in managing TB patients at the primary care level in National TB Programs that follow the DOTS strategy, and to assess the time needed to perform the tasks related to TB care. It is intended as a survey instrument, not as a planning tool.

The Policy Guidelines outline the detailed evidence and explanation of the recommendations and describe the methods, the people involved and the summary of conflicts of interest. The aim of this guidance is to provide a strategic
approach to reducing TB- and HIV-related morbidity and mortality among drug users and their communities in a way that promotes holistic and person-centred services.

This monograph is a case study of integrated monitoring and evaluation of treatment for HIV/TB in Malawi.

This book provides guidelines to national TB program managers, policy makers, nongovernmental organizations, and donor agencies on effective management of TB. The guidelines focus on the technical and managerial aspects of treatment.

This new report on anti-tuberculosis (TB) drug resistance by the World Health Organization (WHO) updates “Anti-tuberculosis drug resistance in the world: Report No. 4” published by WHO in 2008. It summarizes the latest data and provides latest estimates of the global epidemic of multidrug and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (M/XDR-TB). For the first time, this report includes an assessment of the progress countries are making to diagnose and treat MDR-TB cases.