Skip to main content
Innovative solutions for the elimination of tuberculosis among refugees and migrants
2024

Innovative solutions for the elimination of tuberculosis among refugees and migrants

Tuberculosis (TB) remains one of the world’s leading infectious diseases causing millions to fall ill and lose their lives annually. Globally, an estimated 10.6 million people fell ill with TB in 2022, and around 1.3 million people lost their lives to this preventable and curable disease. Migrants, refugees and other populations in humanitarian settings, face substantial threats to health and survival, such as poverty, crowded living conditions, undernutrition and poor access to health services – all conditions in which TB transmission thrives. In a globalized world with increasing levels of geo-political instability, TB is a shared problem for all countries. Global, regional and country efforts to end TB as a public health problem require innovative and people centered solutions which are evidence based. The World Health Organization’s (WHO) End TB Strategy aims to reduce TB deaths, incidence and to eliminate suffering and catastrophic costs that stem from the disease. This report will highlight the challenges and the proposed actions to prevent, manage, and address TB in migrants, refugees, internally displaced persons, and labor migrants.

Tuberculosis (TB) remains one of the world’s leading infectious diseases causing millions to fall ill and lose their lives annually. Globally, an estimated 10.6 million people fell ill with TB in 2022, and around 1.3 million people lost their lives to this preventable and curable disease. Migrants, refugees and other populations in humanitarian settings, face substantial threats to health and survival, such as poverty, crowded living conditions, undernutrition and poor access to health services – all conditions in which TB transmission thrives. In a globalized world with increasing levels of geo-political instability, TB is a shared problem for all countries. Global, regional and country efforts to end TB as a public health problem require innovative and people centered solutions which are evidence based. The World Health Organization’s (WHO) End TB Strategy aims to reduce TB deaths, incidence and to eliminate the suffering and catastrophic costs the stem from the disease. This report will highlight the challenges and the proposed actions to prevent, manage, and address TB in migrants, refugees, internally displaced persons, and labor migrants.

alt text

Dr. Tereza Kasaeva

Dr Tereza Kasaeva, MD, PhD is the Director of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Global Tuberculosis Programme. Since 2018, she has been leading WHO’s work on setting norms, policies and standards on global TB prevention and care; technical support to countries, including through the three-level WHO TB technical expert network; monitoring the global TB epidemic; promoting TB research development & innovations, strengthening political and multisectoral engagement, accountability and advocacy to End TB. She works closely with numerous stakeholders including Member States, civil society, as well as national and international partners. Dr Kasaeva has more than 30 years of experience in public health and in leading innovative efforts for socially significant diseases, including TB, with over a decade with the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation.