Roadmap to prevent and combat drug-resistant tuberculosis: the Consolidated Action Plan to Prevent and Combat Multidrug- and Extensively Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis in the WHO European Region, 2011–2015

In response to the alarming problem of multidrug- and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (M/XDR-TB) in the WHO European Region, and in order to scale up a comprehensive response and to prevent and control M/XDR-TB, a consolidated action plan has been developed for 2011–2015 for all 53 Member States of the WHO European Region and partners. The Plan was endorsed by the sixty-first session of the WHO Regional Committee in Baku on 15 September 2011. It has six strategic directions and seven areas of intervention. The strategic directions are cross-cutting and highlight the corporate priorities of the Region. The areas of intervention are aligned with the Global Plan to Stop TB 2011–2015 and include the same targets as set by the Global Plan and World Health Assembly resolution WHA62.15, to provide universal access to diagnosis and treatment of MDR-TB. The implementation of the Consolidated Action Plan would mean that the emergence of 250 000 new MDR-TB patients and 13 000 XDR-TB patients would be averted, an estimated 225 000 MDR-TB patients would be diagnosed and at least 127 000 of them would be successfully treated thus interrupting the transmission of M/XDR-TB, and 120 000 lives would be saved. The cost of implementing the Plan is estimated at US$ 5.2 billion. Based on the economic analysis of lives saved and disability-adjusted life years, the Plan should prove to be highly cost-effective.