WHO launches ethics guidance to protect rights of TB patients

The WHO today launched an ethics guidance to help nations like India in implementing the 'End TB Strategy' and adhere to ethical standards in protecting the rights of those suffering from tuberculosis.
India is also among the six countries that account for 60 per cent of the total TB cases globally, a recent study has said.
The new WHO ethics guidance addresses contentious issues such as isolation of contagious patients, rights of TB patients in prisons, discriminatory policies against migrants affected by tuberculosis, among others.
"The guidance we have released today aims to identify the ethical predicaments faced in TB care delivery and highlights key actions that can be taken to address those," Mario Raviglione, Director of WHO Global TB Programme said.

It emphasises on five key ethical obligations for governments and caregivers, to provide patients with the social support they need to fulfil their responsibilities, refrain from isolating TB patients before exhausting all options to enable treatment adherence.
It also emphasises on enabling key population access same standard of care offered to other citizens, ensuring that all health workers operate in a safe environment and rapidly share evidence from researches to inform governments about TB policy updates.

"TB strikes poor people the hardest. The WHO is determined to overcome the stigma, discrimination, and other barriers that prevent so many of these people from obtaining the services they need so badly," Margaret Chan, WHO Director-General said.

Tuberculosis, the world's top infectious killer disease, claims 5,000 lives each day.
In 2015, there were an estimated 4.8 lakh cases of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) globally, with approximately half of these cases being in India, China, and Russia.
In 2015, TB was estimated to have killed 1.8 million people and six countries -- India, Indonesia, China, Nigeria, Pakistan and South Africa -- account for 60 per cent of the total number of cases of tuberculosis worldwide, the study published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine has said.