9th National TB Programme Managers’ Meeting of WHO European Region/14th Wolfheze Workshops

Since 1990, the KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation, WHO headquarters and the WHO Regional Office for Europe, the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (IUATLD) and EuroTB/ European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) have jointly organized a series of workshops, known as the “Wolfheze Workshops”, named after a village in the Netherlands where the first meetings took place for the National TB Programme (NTP) Managers of low TB prevalence countries in western Europe. Since 2002, the workshops have been organized in conjunction with the WHO Europe NTP Managers’ Meeting, which focuses on management and coordination of TB control efforts in Europe. 2010 marked the 20 year jubilee of the Wolfheze Workshops offering WHO Member States an opportunity to review the achievements and challenges of the movement and to share and discuss their own experiences.

The aim of Wolfheze 2010 was to discuss the implementation of the Berlin Declaration and progress towards achieving Millennium Development Goal No. 6 (MDG 6) by 2015. During the event, the following issues were elaborated: programmatic management of MDR/XDR-TB and preparation of development of regional MDR-TB Action Plan with enhanced case finding within high risk settings and improved case management across borders, while safeguarding the human rights principles and rights of TB patients.