Acknowledgements

The recommendations included in these consolidated policy guidelines on tuberculosis (TB) are the result of a collaborative effort among professionals from a range of specialities. The World Health Organization (WHO) is grateful for their time and support.

TB antigen-based skin tests (TBSTs) for the diagnosis of TB infection

GDG meeting on use of TBSTs for the diagnosis of TB infection, Geneva, Switzerland, 31 January–3 February 2022

Guideline Development Group

Helen Ayles, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM)/Zambart, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (United Kingdom); David Branigan, Treatment Action Group, New York, United States of America (USA); Jeremiah Chakaya Muhwa, Co-chair, International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, Nairobi, Kenya; Daniela Cirillo, San Raffaele Tuberculosis Supranational Reference Laboratory (SRL), Milan, Italy; Frank Cobelens, Amsterdam Institute of Global Health and Development, Netherlands; Anand Date, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta, USA; Petra de Haas, KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation, The Hague, Netherlands; Rumina Hasan, Department of Pathology and Microbiology, Aga Khan University, SRL Karachi, Pakistan; Farzana Ismail, Centre for Tuberculosis, National Institute for Communicable Diseases/National Health Laboratory Service and WHO SRL, Johannesburg, South Africa; Katharina Kranzer, LSHTM, Harare, Zimbabwe; Afranio Kritski, University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Blessina Kumar, Global Coalition of TB Activists, India; Nagalineswaran Kumarasamy, Voluntary Health Services Infectious Diseases Medical Centre (VHS IDMC), Chennai, India; Andrei Maryandyshev, Nordic University, Arkhangelsk, Russian Federation; Alberto Matteelli, University of Brescia, Italy; Satoshi Mitarai, Research Institute of Tuberculosis, Japan Anti-Tuberculosis Association (RIT/JATA), Japan; Lindiwe Mvusi, national TB programme (NTP), Pretoria, South Africa; Mark Nicol, University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia; Leen Rigouts, Prince Leopold Institute of Tropical Medicine, Brussels, Belgium; Thomas Shinnick, Independent Consultant, Atlanta, USA; Hojoon Sohn, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea; Sabira Tahseen, NTP, Ministry of National Health Services Regulations and Coordination, Government of Pakistan, Islamabad, Pakistan; Ezio Távora dos Santos Filho, Civil Society Task Force Member, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Carrie Tudor, TB Project Director, International Council of Nurses, Durban, South Africa; Marieke van der Werf, European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, Sweden; and Yanlin Zhao, National Center for Tuberculosis Control and Prevention, China CDC, Beijing, China.

Methodologist

Lawrence Mbuagbaw, McMaster University, Canada.

External Review Group

Francis Drobniewski, Imperial College London, United Kingdom; Sergei Skornyakov, Ural Research Institute for Phthisiopulmonology, National Medical Research Center for Phthisiopulmonology and Infectious Diseases of the Ministry of Health of Russian Federation, Yekaterinburg, Russian Federation; Francis Varaine, Médecins Sans Frontières, Paris, France; and Elisabetta Walters, Desmond Tutu TB Centre, Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, Stellenbosch University, Cape Town, South Africa.

Systematic review team

Molebogeng (Lele) Rangaka, University College London, United Kingdom; Yohhei Hamada, University College London, United Kingdom; Lara Goscé, University College London, United Kingdom; Amy Chan, University of Auckland, New Zealand; Victoria Liu, LSHTM, United Kingdom; Ting Ting Wang, University College London, United Kingdom; and Liliya Ziganshina, Cochrane Russia, Russian Federation.

Observers

Draurio Cravo Neto Barreira, Unitaid, Switzerland; Fatim Cham-Jallow, Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, Switzerland; Brian Kaiser, Global Drug Facility, Stop TB Partnership, Switzerland; Amy Piatek, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), USA; Morten Ruhwald, Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND), Switzerland; and Wayne Van Gemert, TB Diagnostics Market Strategies, Stop TB Partnership, Switzerland.

WHO steering committee

Work on these guidelines was overseen by Nazir Ismail and Alexei Korobitsyn, with input from Dennis Falzon, Avinash Kanchar, Linh Nguyen, Lice Gonzalez-Angulo, Annabel Baddeley, Carl-Michael Nathanson (all WHO Global TB Programme [WHO/GTB]), Mercedes Gonzalez (Science division, Research for Health department (SCI/RFH) and Soudeh Ehsani (WHO Regional Office for Europe) under the overall coordination of Matteo Zignol (WHO/ GTB) and the direction of Tereza Kasaeva, Director of WHO/GTB.

Funding

Funding from USAID and UNITAID is gratefully acknowledged. The views of the funding agencies have not influenced the development and content of these guidelines.

Tuberculin skin test (TST) and interferon-gamma release assays (IGRAs) for the diagnosis of TB infection

GDG meeting on use of TST and IGRAs in tuberculosis control in low- and middle-income settings Geneva, Switzerland, 25 April–10 May 2017.

The production of the WHO consolidated guidelines on tuberculosis Module 1: Prevention – tuberculosis preventive treatment was coordinated and written by Dennis Falzon, Avinash Kanchar and Matteo Zignol under the overall direction of Tereza Kasaeva, Director of WHO/GTB. WHO/GTB gratefully acknowledges the contribution of all experts involved in the production of these guidelines.

Guideline Development Group

Nadia Ismail Abu Sabrah, consultant TB physician and epidemiologist, Jordan; Mohammed Al Lawati, consultant physician, Oman; Si Thu Aung, NTP, Department of Public Health, Ministry of Health, Myanmar; Rolando Cedillos, Service of Infectology and Integrated Programme for STI/HIV/AIDS, El Salvador; Richard Chaisson, Center for TB Research, Johns Hopkins University, USA; Padmapriyadarsini Chandrasekaran, National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis, India; Lucy Chesire, TB Advocacy Consortium, Kenya; Betina Durovni, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Diana Gibb, Medical Research Council, United Kingdom; Stephen Graham, Centre for International Child Health, University of Melbourne, Australia; Sally Hargreaves, Imperial College London, United Kingdom; Diane Havlir, University of California, USA; Nguyen van Hung, National Lung Hospital, Viet Nam; Alberto Matteelli, Co-chair, University of Brescia, WHO Collaborative Centre for TB/HIV and TB Elimination, Italy; Lindiwe Mvusi, National Department of Health, South Africa; Marieke van der Werf, European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, Sweden; Wim Vandevelde, Global TB Community Advisory Board, South Africa; and Irina Vasilyeva, Ministry of Health, Russian Federation.

Methodologist

Nandi Siegfried, Medical Research Council / University of Cape Town, South Africa.

External Review Group

Connie Erkens, KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation, Netherlands; Steve Graham, Center for International Child Health University of Melbourne, Australia; Giovanni B. Migliori, Istituti Clinici Scientifici Maugeri IRCCS and WHO Collaborating Centre for Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases, Italy; Rohit Sarin, National Institute of TB and Respiratory Diseases, India; James Seddon, Imperial College, United Kingdom; Alena Skrahina, Republican Scientific and Practical Centre for Pulmonology and TB, Belarus; and Carrie Tudor, International Council of Nurses, South Africa.

WHO steering committee

Work on these guidelines was overseen by Annabel Baddeley, Annemieke Brands, Dennis Falzon, Carmen Figueroa, Medea Gegia, Christopher Gilpin, Philippe Glaziou, Avinash Kanchar and Matteo Zignol from WHO/GTB; Françoise Renaud and Satvinder Singh from the WHO Department of HIV/AIDS; Andreas Reis from the Department of Information, Evidence and Research; and Lorenzo Moja from the Department of Essential Medicines and Health Products. Wilson Were from the WHO Department of Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health also reviewed the guidelines.

Funding

Funding for the guidelines update in 2019–2020 derived from WHO grants provided by USAID and the Russian Federation.

Use of interferon-gamma release assays (IGRAs) for the diagnosis of TB disease

Expert Group meeting on use of interferon-gamma release assays (IGRAs) in tuberculosis control in low- and middle-income settings Geneva, Switzerland, 19–20 July 2010.

Guideline Development Group

Richard A. Adegbola, Global Health, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, USA; Catharina Boehme, FIND, Switzerland; Daniela Cirillo, San Raffaele SRL, Italy; Peter Godfrey-Faussett, LSHTM, United Kingdom; Anneke C. Hesseling, Stellenbosch University, South Africa; Phillip Hill, University of Otago, New Zealand; Oluwamayowa Joel, Communication for Development Centre, Nigeria; Suman Laal, New York University, USA; Philip LoBue, CDC, USA; Rick O’Brien, FIND, Switzerland; Holger Schünemann, McMaster University, Canada; and Lakhbir Singh Chauhan, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, India.

Methodologist

Holger Schünemann, McMaster University, Canada.

Systematic review team/Observers

Adithya Cattamanchi, San Francisco General Hospital Pulmonary Division, USA; Anand Date, CDC, USA; Anne Detjen, North America Office, International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, USA; David Dowdy, University of California San Francisco, USA; Richard (Dick) Menzies, Montreal Chest Institute, Canada; John Metcalfe, University of California San Francisco, USA; Madhukar Pai, McGill University, Canada; Molebogeng (Lele) Rangaka, University College London, United Kingdom; Karen R. Steingart, Curry International Tuberculosis Center, University of California, San Francisco, USA; and Alice Zwerling, Ottawa University, Canada.

WHO steering committee

Work on these guidelines was overseen by Chris Gilpin and Jean Iragena with input from Regina Kulier, Christian Lienhardt, Fuad Mirzayev, Mario Raviglione, Karin Weyer and Matteo Zignol (all WHO Stop TB Department), Luis Cuevas, Jane Cunningham, Andy Ramsay and Soumya Swaminathan (all WHO Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases [TDR]).

Funding 

Funding support from the United Nations Children’s Fund, the United Nations Development Programme, the World Bank, WHO/TDR and TREAT TB/The Union. The views of the funding agencies have not influenced the development and content of these guidelines.

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