Comprehensive TB Guidelines for National Tuberculosis Program, V Edition

Overview

The WHO updated its guidance for the management of Drug-Susceptible TB (DS-TB), Drug-Resistant TB (DR-TB), Patient Care, Latent TB Infection (LTBI) and Infection Prevention in 2018-19. These updated guidelines are important in the context of the End TB Strategy, which recommends treatment and patient support for all people with TB. Timor-Leste has a high TB burden, and this requires accelerated efforts for ending TB. Revision of the TB and Drug Resistant (DR)-TB guidelines for Timor-Leste aligned with recent updates to the WHO guidelines comes at an opportune time when the country is gearing up for implementing the End TB Strategy and is committed to ending TB by 2030.

A consolidated guideline that will include all the recommendations on management of both TB and DR-TB, is currently the need of the hour for guiding the NTP, Timor-Leste, for accelerating its progress towards ending TB. The policy recommendations in each of these guidelines have been developed by WHO-convened Guideline Development Groups (GDGs), using the GRADE (Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation) approach to summarise the evidence, and formulate policy recommendations and accompanying remarks. The updated guidelines by WHO aim to use the best available new evidence on the management of Drug-Susceptible TB, Drug-Resistant TB, Patient Care, Infection Prevention and Latent TB Infection.

The key audiences for these guidelines are policy makers in the MoH and the managers of the NTP who formulate country specific TB and DR-TB guidelines. In addition, health professionals- including doctors, nurses, and educators working both in Govt. and Non-Govt. Organizations (NGOs) involved in treating TB patients and organizing treatment services – are expected to use this updated and consolidated guideline.