Advocates Call on WHO to Consolidate and Revise Its Guidance Regarding the Treatment for MDR-TB

1 February 2018

TB CAB issues a position statement on the use of bedaquiline as part of the preferred regimen for MDR-TB.

On 1 February 2018, on the initiative of the Global TB Community Advisory Board (TB CAB), advocates, members and representatives of affected communities, and members of civil society invested in ensuring access to the best available and evidence-based treatments for TB sent an open letter to Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), and Dr. Tereza Kasaeva, WHO Global TB Program Director expressing their concerns regarding the existing WHO recommendations for the treatment of multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB), and sharing their position for how they should be revised.

The signatories encouraged “the WHO to consolidate its guidance regarding the treatment for MDR-TB, and in the interim, as a matter of urgency, to recommend bedaquiline as part of the preferred regimen for patients with MDR-TB in place of the injectable agent.” They also advised the WHO “to relegate the injectables for use only in more complicated DR‐TB [drug-resistant TB] cases, and with absolute requirement and assurance of monitoring for hearing loss.”

The letter is accompanied by a position statement issued by the TB CAB on the use of bedaquiline as part of the preferred regimen for MDR-TB.

The letter was originally signed on by 21 individuals and 23 organizations. A number of additional organizations and individuals have endorsed the letter since it was sent.