Out of Step in EECA: TB Policies in 8 Countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia

Although it can be prevented and successfully treated, tuberculosis (TB) is the world’s deadliest infectious disease. In Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA), conditions are ripe for TB proliferation, with suboptimal TB diagnosis and treatment, poor treatment adherence rates, limited health care in prisons, and high rates of HIV infection and injection drug use, all against a backdrop of weak health care systems. In 2015, most of the 323,000 new TB cases and the 32,000 deaths due to TB in the WHO European Region occurred in EECA. In 2015, an estimated one in five MDR-TB cases globally occurred in the European Region.