New WHO recommendations for TB testing to enhance early detection and accessibility

The World Health Organization (WHO) announced they are working on updating their tuberculosis (TB) guidelines. Included in WHO consolidated guidelines on tuberculosis. Module 3: Diagnosis. 2^nd edition will be WHO’s new recommendations for TB testing.

The goal of this action is to help healthcare professionals diagnose the disease earlier and to broaden TB testing accessibility. WHO’s recommendations are new near-point-of-care nucleic acid amplification tests (NPOC-NAATs), with tongue swabs (if patient cannot produce sputum) for specimen collection for diagnosing TB without rifampicin resistance. Tongue swabs can also be used with low-complexity automated NAATs (LC-aNAATs). It is important to note that NPOC-NAATs are suggested by WHO for peripheral levels of the health system. Sputa pooling with LC-aNAATs is also recommended for faster TB and rifampicin resistance diagnoses. WHO says the strategy can also reduce testing costs.

WHO forecasts that the new guidelines will be published in the next several weeks, along with a handbook, toolkit, and educational webinars.