World Tuberculosis Day - 2020
World Tuberculosis Day, marked each year on 24 March, is an occasion to raise awareness and advocate for efforts to eliminate TB. It is high time to end TB.
The joint ECDC – WHO report 'Tuberculosis surveillance and monitoring in Europe 2020 (2018 data)’ shows an overall decline of 4% in the number of notified tuberculosis cases between 2014 and 2018 in the EU/EEA countries. Although this is evidence of improvement, the treatment success rates for new and relapse cases, as well as for patients with drug-resistant TB are still below regional and global targets. Improvements can be achieved through, for example, better management of latent TB as a preventative measure against active TB, says ECDC.
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Online resources on TB
Find a multitude of materials on TB from countries and organisations.
European Union Standards for Tuberculosis Care
ECDC and the European Respiratory Society (ERS) have developed the European Union Standards for Tuberculosis Care (ESTC). These standards are tailored to EU/EEA settings and are in line with accepted international principles and guidelines. The goal of the standards is to help public health experts, clinicians and healthcare programmes in TB prevention and control, bridging current gaps in the case management of TB in the EU/EEA. The standards are available in all EU/EEA official languages.
Management of latent tuberculosis infection
Latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) carriers are asymptomatic and not infectious. Around 10% of LTBI carriers develop active TB at a later stage. In low incidence countries, a majority of TB cases occur due to the progression of LTBI from passive to active disease. This is why it is crucial to improve management of LTBI in Europe. ECDC has developed various guidance documents and tools to help EU/EEA countries prevent and control LTBI.
