TBEC Director spoke about the role of local communities in the fight against TB at the EuroWHO regional workshop

The TBEC Executive Director Yuliia Kalancha spoke about the role of local communities in the context of WHO recommendations for their involvement in the fight against TB and the prevention and screening services they provide to participants of the regional workshop “Gearing up towards ending TB in Europe: Regional workshop on prevention and systematic screening (PASS-to-EndTB)” organized by the WHO Regional Office for Europe and the WHO Global TB Programme.


The speaker shared with the participants the practical experience of partners from CSOs and communities from “TBpeopleUkraine” and “Alliance of Public Health” (Ukraine), “Saglamliga Khidmat” (Azerbaijan) and the Stop TB Partnership. Tajikistan".


Emphasizing the importance of implementing the Standardized package of community-based support services developed by TBEC in partnership with the PAS Center and EuroWHO at the community level, the speaker announced the upcoming launch of an online course to support this initiative. In addition, Ms. Kalancha drew the attention of the webinar participants to the fact that the prevention and screening activities implemented by CSOs and communities will be part of the EuroWHO monitoring. Countries will report on these activities using four new indicators, reflecting a systematic approach to the impact of communities and civil society organizations on TB response in the region.


In general, the 3-day event, held from October 30 to November 1, 2023 in Istanbul and focused on high priority countries, covers the following issues:

•     current policies and current practices in the field of screening, tuberculosis prevention and control;

•     identifying opportunities to strengthen countries' capacity to implement WHO recommendations in these areas;

•     strengthening regional and national capacity in the areas of TB preventive treatment, infection control, systematic screening and active  case finding of TB;

·     presentation of mechanisms and tools for accelerated implementation of the latest recommendations;

•     creation at the national level of a Group for support and implementation of measures for tuberculosis prevention, screening and infection control; start of planning activities for 2024/2025.

 

The workshop also introduced a new approach to providing technical assistance in these areas, involving a new pool of regional consultants and national partners.

TBEC Director spoke about the role of local communities in the fight against TB at the EuroWHO regional workshop
TBEC Director spoke about the role of local communities in the fight against TB at the EuroWHO regional workshop