Ethical issues in tuberculosis care and control Tuberculosis
(TB) prevention, care and control raise important ethical and
policy issues that need to be adequately addressed. These
concerns have been accentuated by the problem of multidrug-
resistant TB (MDR-TB) and, most recently, by the emergence and
spread of “extensively” drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB) which is
especially difficult to detect and treat. Following the
recommendation of the WHO Task Force on XDR-TB at their 2nd
meeting (April 2008), the Ethics and Health Team of the
Department of Ethics, Equity, Trade and Human Rights and the
Stop TB Department jointly established a WHO Task Force on
Addressing Ethical Issues in TB Care and Control Programmes in
August 2008. The aim was to undertake a comprehensive analysis
of ethical issues in TB and to lay the groundwork for the
formulation of WHO guidance in order to help governments and
other stakeholders to implement TB care and control programmes
in an ethical manner. Composition of the Task Force Twenty-tw