The political declaration at the first United Nations (UN) high-level meeting on tuberculosis (TB) held on 26 September 2018 included commitments by Member States to four new global targets ³ , which were subsequently renewed at the second UN high-level meeting on TB on 22 September 2023⁴ . One of these targets is that at least 90 per cent of the estimated number of people who develop TB are reached with quality-assured diagnosis and treatment in the 5-year period 2023–2027³ .
In 2022, 7.5 million were diagnosed with TB ⁵ . Globally, in the same year, the estimated number of people who developed multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB) or rifampicin-resistant TB (RR-TB) was 410 000 (95% UI: 370 000–450 000).
When novel tools to detect Mycobacterium tuberculosis and resistance to anti-TB drugs are developed, the new evidence is submitted to the World Health Organization (WHO) to produce evidence-based policy recommendations. Since 2021 the WHO has being publishing consolidated guidelines to diagnose TB and drug-resistant TB (DR-TB).
This document represents the third edition of such guidelines. Comparing to the second edition, issued in 2022, the current document includes for the first time a chapter on targeted nextgeneration sequencing (NGS) tests for the diagnosis of DR-TB in people with diagnosed TB with or without RR-TB.
3 Resolution 73/3: Political declaration of the high-level meeting of the General Assembly on the fight against tuberculosis. New York: United Nations General Assembly; 2018 (https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/political-declarationof-the-un-general-assembly-high-level-meeting-on-the-fight-against-tuberculosis).
4 Resolution 78/L.4. Political declaration of the high-level meeting of the General Assembly on the fight against tuberculosis. New York: United Nations; 2023 (https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/4022582).
5 Global tuberculosis report 2023. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2023.