Review of the national tuberculosis programme in Romania, 10–21 March 2014

Romania has the highest incidence of TB in the European Union (EU)/European Economic Area (EEA), representing one quarter of the EU/EEA TB burden. A review of the national TB programme in Romania was jointly organized by the WHO Regional Office for Europe and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, with WHO leading all operations, from 10 to 21 March 2014. The review acknowledged the high rates of detection and treatment success achieved among patients with drug susceptible forms of TB; it also pointed to the large proportion of patients with multidrug-resistant TB who are not detected or are poorly treated. The review identified major challenges to be addressed at programme level as well as at health system level and gave the Ministry of Health and the national TB programme 14 main recommendations for improvement.