22 Apr India – Regional Green Light Committee (rGLC) Meeting
[vc_row css_animation=”” row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern”][vc_column][vc_separator type=”normal” thickness=”2″ up=”20″ down=”20″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css_animation=”” row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern”][vc_column][vc_column_text]The National Institute of Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases (NITRD) and WHO SEA Regional Office hosted a three-day meeting to discuss the progress of countries in the region towards the UNHLM targets, scale up of diagnostics, adoption of WHO updated treatment guidelines and patient community support systems.
The main recommendations and action points include:
- The adoption of the updated WHO guidelines for DR-TB management, including all oral shorter regimens, considering the respective country context and National Strategic Plan contents; and urgently plan to phase out injectable containing regimens for DR-TB patients.
- Community (and private sector) engagement in DR-TB management and patient care through:
- Dialogue with TB Champions on how they can best bring value to program management, monitoring and patient care, and what steps would be needed for capacity building;
- Capacity building for management planning, treatment delivery and monitoring; and
- Civil Society Organizations to be engaged in post-treatment monitoring and rehabilitation processes for patients not only for the medical aspects but also for mental health aspects.
- rGLC to provide appropriate technical assistance to the member states for introduction of all oral standardized treatment regimens (STR) under programmatic conditions or for conducting operational research for all oral modified STRs, including BPaL at the earliest; support countries in strengthening their active TB drug-safety monitoring and management (aDSM) systems via organizing a regional workshop and specific aDSM related in-country missions based on requests by member states; facilitate drug registrations in coordination with relevant partners; encourage National TB Programs to request capacity building for community, and advocate for the importance of the involvement of community activities/engagement in the NTP’s DR-TB related-activities and organize a regional workshop for community/civil society engagement followed by country-specific workshop.
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