Operational Handbooks

The WHO operational handbook on tuberculosis, Module 4: treatment and care provides practical guidance on implementing recommendations to achieve national and global impact in tuberculosis (TB) management. It consolidates three key components of the WHO consolidated guidelines on tuberculosis treatment: drug-susceptible TB (DS-TB) treatment, drug-resistant TB (DR-TB) treatment, and tuberculosis care and support. This consolidated operational handbook complements the WHO consolidated guidelines on TB treatment, assisting Member States, technical partners and other stakeholders who

Adverse event: Any untoward medical occurrence that may present in a person with tuberculosis (TB) during treatment with a pharmaceutical product but that does not necessarily have a causal relationship with the treatment.

Bacteriologically confirmed TB case: A case from whom a biological specimen is positive by smear microscopy, culture or a World Health Organization (WHO) recommended rapid diagnostic (e.g. Xpert^® MTB/RIF).

Consolidation of the operational handbook (2025)

Consolidation of the operational handbook was carried out by Medea Gegia, Fuad Mirzayev, and Linh Nguyen under the overall direction of Matteo Zignol and Tereza Kasaeva.

This checklist is based on one produced by Médecins Sans Frontières (1).

Instructions: This tool provides an idea of the risk of transmission of M. tuberculosis in a health-care facility or congregate setting. The results should be completed by the IPC focal person and interpreted by the IPC committee. For the Yes/No questions, a Yes answer indicates good TB IPC practices. Any pertinent information on No answers is noted in the Comments section below each table.

                                                               TB epidemiological surveillance form

Continued monitoring of collaborative TB/DM activities and evaluation of their impact is critical for scaling up, for monitoring progress and for identifying gaps in implementation. This requires an effective, efficient monitoring and evaluation system. Table A.4.1. summarizes suggested core indicators for monitoring and evaluating collaborative TB/DM activities.
 

Table A.4.1. Summary of indicators for monitoring and evaluating collaborative TB/DM activities