WASHINGTON, United States (CMC) — The World Health Organization (WHO) has launched new tuberculosis (TB) ethics guidance aimed at helping ensure that countries implementing the End TB Strategy adhere to sound ethical standards to protect the rights of all those affected.

TB, the world’s top infectious disease killer, claims 5000 lives daily. The WHO’s heaviest burden is carried by communities, which already face socio-economic challenges: migrants, refugees, prisoners, ethnic minorities, miners and others working and living in risk-prone settings, and marginalised women, children and older people.

“TB strikes some of the world’s poorest people hardest,” said Dr Margaret Chan, WHO Director-General.

 “WHO is determined to overcome the stigma, discrimination, and other barriers that prevent so many of these people from obtaining the services they so badly need.”

Poverty, malnutrition, poor housing and sanitation, compounded by other risk factors such as HIV, tobacco, alcohol use and diabetes, can put people at heightened risk of TB and make it harder for them to access care.

The WTO said that more than a third (4.3 million) of people with TB go undiagnosed or unreported, some receive no care at all and others access care of questionable quality.

The new WHO ethics guidance addresses contentious issues such as the isolation of contagious patients, the rights of TB patients in prison, discriminatory policies against migrants affected by TB, among others.

It emphasises five key ethical obligations for governments, health workers, care providers, nongovernmental organisations, researchers and other stakeholders to provide patients with the social support they need to fulfil their responsibilities; and refrain from isolating TB patients before exhausting all options to enable treatment adherence and only under very specific conditions.

The guidelines enable “key populations” to access the same standard of care offered to other citizens as well as ensure all health workers operate in a safe environment and rapidly share evidence from research to inform national and global TB policy updates.