Tuberculosis surveillance and control in Germany - An application of the Berlin Declaration Monitoring and Evaluation Framework.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: In 2007, the 'Berlin Declaration on Tuberculosis' (BD) was signed by the Ministers of the WHO European Region Member States (MS) to address the re-emerging threat of tuberculosis (TB) by fully implementing the Stop TB strategy. WHO Euro developed a Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Framework using programmatic and epidemiological indicators to follow-up the BD from 2013 onwards. Ahead of this, we explored the Framework performance for Germany, a low TB incidence country. METHODS: We selected from a surveillance perspective on five country-specific indicators asked for all MS. Information sources included guidelines, notification data and laboratory quality assurance results. RESULTS: As to national TB guidelines (indicator 1.1.1), up-to-date guidance documents are available. Regarding external quality assurance (3.2) proficiency testing confirms high quality of culture and drug-susceptibility testing. M/XDR-TB prevention and control is reflected by a 1.7% MDR-TB rate in 2010 with decreasing tendency (4.1.2). As to treatment success (5), the WHO target of 85% is reached for all age groups except the elderly ≥60 years. Germany disposes of an electronic case-based surveillance providing evidence for TB policy and practices (5.2.2). CONCLUSIONS: The selected M&E Framework indicators proved well applicable to a low-incidence country. The results show no specific gaps in TB surveillance and control in Germany.