Today's Clinical Lab - News, Editorial and Products for the Clinical Laboratory
3D illustration of human lungs with highlighted infected areas.
The web-based tool utilizes data from the WHO and other international databases, along with data from the published literature, to provide the latest country-specific estimates of key information on TB burden and risk factors.
iStock, magicmine

WHO Launches Comprehensive Web-Based TB Screening Tool

ScreenTB is free for all to use and could help countries track and monitor TB’s spread

World Health Organization
Published:Oct 16, 2023
|1 min read
Register for free to listen to this article
Listen with Speechify
0:00
1:00

The WHO’s Global Tuberculosis Programme recently announced the update and release of ScreenTB—a web-based tool designed to help countries prioritize risk groups for screening and to develop country-specific screening and prevention approaches.

Screening is a key action for countries to reach the ambitious targets committed by world leaders at the 2023 UN High Level Meeting on the fight against tuberculosis (TB). The declaration targets countries to detect and treat 45 million people with TB and to initiate TB preventive treatment in 45 million people by 2027. This would require rapid scaling up of activities such as screening and active case finding.

“Innovative technologies, such as portable digital X-ray modalities, and computer-aided detection (CAD) software, have greatly expanded the reach and potential of screening implementation in recent years,” said Tereza Kasaeva, MD, PhD, director of the WHO’s Global TB Programme. “We are confident that ScreenTB will make it easier for countries to plan and carry out systematic screening to help achieve the ambitious targets needed to end TB worldwide.”

ScreenTB utilizes data from the WHO’s latest Global Tuberculosis Report and other international databases, as well as data from the published literature, to provide the latest country-specific estimates of key information on TB burden and risk factors, accuracy of screening and diagnostic tools, and country-specific cost estimates. The tool also lets users customize risk groups and screening tools as desired.

ScreenTB then generates estimates of a number of important outcomes for the user, specific to the country and risk groups being screened and the tools and algorithms selected, including the yield of screening, eligibility for TB preventive treatment, and costs. The tool also generates a number of figures to allow for visual comprehension and comparison of the outcomes.

- This press release was originally published on the World Health Organization website