Dr Tereza Kasaeva

Dr Tereza Kasaeva is the Director of the World Health Organization’s Global Programme on Tuberculosis & Lung Health.  As Director, she is responsible for the work on setting norms, policies and standards on global TB prevention, control and care including on tackling drug resistance, coordinating the technical expert network for TB across the three levels of WHO and technical support to countries, monitoring the global situation, developing innovative interventions through translation of new evidence into policies & practice, promoting research & development and through addressing system challenges such as access to quality care for all following principles of equality and human rights through an integrated approach all healthcare provider engagement including community and private sector.  

Dr Kasaeva spearheaded the organization of the 2018 UN High Level Meeting on TB that brought together Heads of State and other leaders to ramp up the TB response, with countries, partners and civil society. The political declaration of the UN High Level Meeting reaffirmed commitments to the SDGs and End TB Strategy and established new global targets and commitments to action. She coordinated the development of a 2020 progress report of the UN Secretary-General to the General Assembly with the support of the WHO Director-General. This report was developed and launched in October 2020. Dr Kasaeva coordinated the development of WHO’s multisectoral accountability framework. WHO is supporting countries to adapt and use the framework to translate commitments into actions and to monitor, report, and review progress, with the engagement of high-level leadership, all relevant sectors, civil society and other stakeholders. Under the leadership of WHO’s Director-General leadership - the WHO Flagship initiative “Find.Treat.All.#EndTB” was initiated jointly with Stop TB Partnership and The Global Fund.  She coordinated the development of WHO’s  Global Strategy for TB Research and Innovation, in collaboration with research networks, relevant non-state actors, international agencies and TB community advisory boards.  WHO supports the secretariat for the BRICS TB Research Network. Dr Kasaeva works in close collaboration with civil society, affected people and communities through WHO’s Civil Society Taskforce to mainstream their perspectives in the TB response at all levels. She launched a new initiative called WHO 1+1 initiative to mobilize young people in efforts to end TB. Tens of thousands of youth have been engaged in the initiative since its launch. Since 2020, Dr Kasaeva has been working extensively with countries, partners and civil society to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic including through close to real-time monitoring of the situation and ensuring continuity of essential TB services.

Dr Kasaeva conceived the concept of, and co-led the organisation of the First WHO Global Ministerial Conference on Ending TB in the Sustainable Development Era which took place in 2017 in Moscow. The Declaration adopted at the conference, includes commitments and calls to action to accelerate efforts to end the TB epidemic, and informed the first-ever United Nations General Assembly high-level meeting on TB in 2018. She also co-led efforts among BRICS Member States to set up and launch the BRICS TB Research Network to advance collaboration, mobilize resources and catalyze TB R&D.

As a leading health expert, Dr Kasaeva has over 28 years of experience in public health, with over ten years at the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation. She has worked closely with numerous stakeholders including Member States, civil society, as well as national and international partners. For the past decade, she coordinated the national TB, HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis, STI, Diabetes, Mental Health and NCD programmes in the Russian Federation. She facilitated and directed the cooperation between former Soviet Union countries, EUROZEU, BRICS and other countries on problems related to TB, HIV and migration. Since 2013, she has been the co-chair of the Secretariat of the High-Level Working Group of the Russian Ministry of Health and WHO on TB. In 2017, she was a member of the WHO Strategic and Technical Advisory Group for TB (STAG-TB). In addition, Dr Kasaeva has been instrumental in leading efforts to modernize the health system in the country, prevent and control socially significant diseases, as well as promote outpatient care for TB patients.

Dr Kasaeva is a Medical Doctor, with a specialization in Cardiology. She has a PhD in Public Health focusing on the perfection of outpatient technologies for the treatment of the TB patients. She also has a Master’s degree in International Relations and is certified as a healthcare organization specialist. In 2015, she was awarded the prestigious Breastplate "Excellence in Public Health”.