WHO Releases New Guidelines for Drug Resistant TB Diagnosis

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The World Health Organization (WHO) has recently published recommendations on the use of targeted next-generation sequencing (NGS) tests for the diagnosis of drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB). 

The guidelines are featured in the third edition of the Consolidated Guidelines on Tuberculosis. Module 3: Diagnosis. Rapid diagnostics for tuberculosis detection. The WHO's recommendations offer a new approach for rapidly detecting drug resistance to new anti-TB drugs, utilizing the latest technologies.

Dr Tereza Kasaeva, Director of WHO's Global TB Programme, acknowledged the contribution of manufacturer engagement and research in expanding diagnostic options for individuals with drug-resistant TB. 

She further emphasized the importance of guaranteeing access to rapid and accurate diagnoses with state-of-the-art technologies, which can aid the efforts to prevent and ultimately end TB.

Accompanying the guidelines is a WHO operational handbook, which furnishes detailed guidance on how laboratory personnel, clinicians, other clinical staff, and ministries of health and technical partners can implement the evidence-based recommendations. 

The handbook includes recent updates on targeted NGS tests, outlines the WHO-recommended procedures for rapid bacteriological diagnosis of TB disease, and provides model algorithms, as well as the steps and processes needed to implement and scale new tests for TB diagnosis and resistance detection.

In addition to the guidelines and operational handbook, WHO has launched a new TB sequencing portal. The portal, developed in partnership with FIND and Unitaid, contains a knowledge base of over 56,000 sequences of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. 

The portal represents the most advanced sequencing and phenotyping knowledge base of the bacteria and includes a dashboard displaying the data used in the WHO mutation catalog published in November 2023.