FeedbackThis operational handbook was prepared and coordinated by Linh Nguyen and Fuad Mirzayev, with input from Ernesto Jaramillo and Matteo Zignol, and under the overall direction of Tereza Kasaeva, Director, WHO Global Tuberculosis Programme. The WHO Global Tuberculosis Programme gratefully acknowledges the contributions of all experts involved in the production of the latest updates of the WHO guidelines on tuberculosis care and support, on which this handbook is based, as well as other contributors listed below.
WHO staff and experts who contributed to the drafting of the handbook include the following:
- Elizabeth Harausz drafted Chapter 1 (Introduction), Chapter 3 on care and support interventions to enable TB treatment adherence, including material support and companionship support, treatment support, selecting an optimal treatment plan and a suitable package of care and support for a patient (sections 3.1.3, 3.1.4, 3.2.1 and 3.3), and sections 5.1, 5.3 and 5.4 on models of care for TB services.
- Asma Humayun drafted Chapter 2 on people-centred care, Section 3.1 on social support, including introduction, information and educational support, psychological and emotional support (sections 3.1.1 and 3.1.2), and Chapter 4 on health education and counselling.
- Dennis Falzon drafted Section 3.2.2 on digital health technologies.
- Eric Krakauer drafted Chapter 6 on palliative care and provided input to Section 4.7.2 on counselling on palliative care.
- Kerri Viney contributed to adapting Section 5.2 on decentralized and integrated family-centred models of TB care for children and adolescents from the chapter on models of TB care for children and adolescents in the WHO operational handbook on tuberculosis. Module 5: management of tuberculosis in children and adolescents, which was originally written by Moorine Sekkade (National TB and Leprosy Programme, Uganda), with contributions from Annemieke Brands, Monica Diaz, Dennis Falzon, Ernesto Jaramillo, Farai Mavhunga, Liana Oganezova, Sabine Verkuijl and Kerri Viney, and Section 5.3 on models of service delivery for people with TB, HIV and comorbidities from a respective chapter in the WHO Framework for Collaborative Action on TB and Comorbidities, which was written by Annabel Baddeley and Anna Carlqvist with contributions from Kerri Viney and Farai Mavhunga.
Peer reviewers of this handbook include: Anurag Bhargava (Yenepoya Medical College Hospital, Mangalore, India), Yuliya Chorna (WHO Civil Society Taskforce, TB Europe Coalition, Ukraine), Mike Frick (Treatment Action Group, United States of America) and Carrie Tudor (International Council of Nurses, South Africa), as well as Vineet Bhatia (WHO Regional Office for South-East Asia, India), Ireneaus Sebit Sindani (WHO Country Office, Somalia), and Medea Gegia, Ernesto Jaramillo, Avinash Kanchar, Lana Syed and Kerri Viney (WHO Global Tuberculosis Programme, Switzerland).
Production of the handbook was funded by grants provided to WHO by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).