Tuberculosis infection (TBI) remains a public health concern in the Nordic and Baltic Sea countries despite low overall incidence. Data from NDPHS countries and Ukraine reveal variation in screening, treatment, and surveillance. These inconsistencies, combined with limited access to essential medicines and the ongoing impact of the war in Ukraine, threaten progress toward TB elimination goals. The Policy Symposium “Towards Elimination of Tuberculosis: Addressing TB infections in the Baltic Sea Region” gathered experts to discuss and validate evidence-based policy recommendations and presented key findings from the project.

The “Latent TB Infection Inventory” project was coordinated by the NDPHS Secretariat and its Expert Group on HIV, TB & Associated Infections implemented by FILHA, Estonian National Institute for Health Development, and Norwegian Institute for Public Health, and funded by the Norwegian Ministry for Health and Care Services. The project examined TB infection screening and treatment policies and practices, commonalities and differences, achievements and gaps across the study countries. Aside from the situation analysis, the project experts prepared two manuscripts for publication in peer-reviewed journals and drafted a set of policy recommendations aimed at improving and strengthening the TB infection management and, consequently, at achieving the TB elimination goals by 2030.

Read the draft policy recommendations here.

The hybrid Symposium audience were experts from the Nordic and Baltic Countries, from Central Europe and Balkan Region, Central Asia and beyond. The regional and national perspectives, updates and insights shared by Senia Rosales Klintz from ECDC, Andrei Dadu from WHO European Office and Manfred Danilovits from Tartu Medical University set the framework for presenting the findings and outputs of the project by Tuula Vasankari, Thijs Feuth, Elmira Gurbanova, Karine Nordstand, followed by reflections from Hanna Soini (Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare), Jerker Jonsson (Folkholsömyndigheten/Public Health Agency of Sweden), Piret Viiklepp (Estonian National Institute for Health Development), Liga Kuksa (WHO CC in Latvia), and Barbara Hauer (Robert Koch Institute).

Given the high variability of TBI screening and treatment approaches among the study countries, and keeping in mind the ongoing shifts in the TB epidemiological picture in Europe, the project partners and invited experts agreed that to effectively respond to TB disease, and especially to multidrug-resistant TB, it is necessary to have adequate data about the TBI situation and it is necessary to shift the paradigm from reactive care (diagnosing and treating active TB) to programmatic prevention (contact tracing, screening at-risk and vulnerable populations, and treating latent TB infection). Such projects as the LTBI Inventory project are much needed because they provide evidence for advocacy and pushing for structural, clinical and regulatory changes nationally. Such projects guide the establishment of national legal frameworks which enable the implementation of TBI management guidelines and recommendations produced by expert organisations.

The project is financed by the Norwegian Ministry of Health and Care Services

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