Guidelines for Treatment of Drug-Susceptible Tuberculosis and Patient Care

Book excerpt: The update of the Guidelines for Treatment of Drug-susceptible Tuberculosis and Patient Care is important in the context of the End TB Strategy, which recommends treatment and patient support for all people with TB. This update aims to use the best available evidence on the treatment of drug-susceptible TB and interventions to ensure adequate patient care and support in order to inform policy decisions made in these technical areas by national TB control program managers, national policy-makers, and medical practitioners in a variety of geographical, economic, and social settings. The objectives of these updated guidelines are to provide updated recommendations based on newly emerged evidence on the treatment of drug-susceptible TB and patient care as well as provide a summary of changes in the new guidelines with all the existing and valid WHO recommendations on the treatment of drug-susceptible TB and TB patient care. The key audience for these guidelines are policy-makers in ministries of health or managers of national TB programs who formulate country-specific TB treatment guidelines or who plan TB treatment programs. In addition, health professionals - including doctors, nurses, and educators working both in government services and nongovernmental organizations, such as technical agencies that are treating patients and organizing treatment services - will find these guidelines to be useful.