Guidance on Ethics of Tuberculosis Prevention, Care and Control

With the growing breadth and complexity of TB efforts today comes a greater range of concerns associated with the ethics of action, inaction and specific approaches to clinical, public health and research interventions. In 2006, the documented emergence of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB),2 including a dramatic and lethal outbreak in South Africa, brought forward urgent issues of public health ethics given the imposition in some programs of involuntary detention of persons suspected and/or confirmed of being ill with drug-resistant TB under the justification of public safety.

In a linked effort, the Stop TB Partnership agreed to establish a TB and Human Rights Task Force in 2010, with secretariat being provided by WHO and the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). The Task Force will aim to develop a policy framework for a rights-based approach to TB prevention, care and control as joint products of WHO, the Stop TB Partnership and UNAIDS. It will also propose a strategic agenda for action. It will be composed of major stakeholders, constituencies from affected communities and risk groups, human rights and civil society organizations, health and human rights experts, United Nations agencies, and development partners. This ethics guidance and the resulting rights-based policy framework will be used as complementary and companion documents to guide further dialogue and action in these areas.