Palliative Care for Tuberculosis

In 2014, 1.5 million people died of tuberculosis (TB) worldwide including 400,000 co-infected with HIV. TB remains a major cause of death and suffering globally, in spite of the fact that it is supposed to be a curable disease. Drug resistant forms of TB have developed as a result of poor treatment compliance including multi-drug and extreme drug resistant forms that take longer to treat and have higher likelihoods of treatment failure. In 2010, at the initiation of the TB community, a partnership was formed between the World Health Organization Stop TB Program, the Worldwide Hospice Palliative Care Alliance, and the Open Society Foundation's International Palliative Care Initiative to explore how to improve the ability of TB professionals to deliver palliative care (PC) to their patients. This article describes the progress made in the last six years and the barriers remaining. A training curriculum was developed, courses conducted at major TB conferences (Union Lung Health), several publications produced, model programs identified, and comprehensive clinical guidelines developed. There remain significant barriers including lack of awareness and a major need for resources to deliver PC education to the TB workforce and the PC community to realize World Health Organization's goal of zero suffering for TB patients.