Crisis of Confidence in the WHO’s Ability to Produce Normative Guidance for the Treatment of RR-/MDR-TB

5 June 2019

Advocates request an urgent in-person meeting with the WHO leadership to discuss concrete actions to address technical and guideline development process-related issues previously raised.

On 5 June 2019, TB advocates sent a second open letter to Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), as a follow-up to the initial open letter sent on 23 April 2019 raising multiple serious concerns about the WHO guidelines for the treatment of rifampicin-resistant and multidrug-resistant TB (RR-/MDR-TB).

“We acknowledge your response and participated in the webinar held May 22, however, the specific technical issues we raised remain unaddressed. There is a growing crisis of confidence in the WHO’s ability to produce normative guidance for the treatment of RR-/MDR-TB. This crisis is especially urgent as we expect data to more regularly emerge from programs and clinical trials nearing completion.”

The signatories requested an urgent in-person meeting with Dr. Tedros and the newly appointed Chief Scientific Officer, Dr. Swaminathan, to discuss concrete actions that can be taken to address: (1) the technical and guideline development process-related issues that have been raised; (2) apparent technical assistance and other support deficiencies; and (3) strategies to mitigate the continued subjugation of people with RR-/MDR-TB to unnecessary harms resulting from the lack of clarity in the current WHO guidelines for the treatment of RR-/MDR-TB.