![Hon. Festus Keyamo SAN arrives MMIA past 11:50 p.m. Feb 23 to lead oversight of Terminal 1 fire. Joined FAAN MD & team actively managing situation. Directed morning inspection Tuesday to guide restoration & confirm safety standards. Reaffirmed focus on passenger safety. Story: [link] #KeyamoMMIA #FireIncident #FAAN](https://fullcliphq.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/mym-150x150.jpg "MMIA Fire: Keyamo Inspects Lagos Airport After Terminal 1 Blaze Disrupts Flights")
The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued new guidelines recommending a suite of innovative diagnostic tools that can be used near the point of care to help countries accelerate progress toward ending tuberculosis (TB), one of the world’s deadliest infectious diseases.
Announced on World TB Day, March 24, 2026, the updated recommendations focus on portable, battery-operated nucleic acid amplification tests (NPOC-NAATs) that deliver results in less than one hour at less than half the cost of many existing molecular diagnostics. These tools are designed to bring accurate TB diagnosis closer to where people routinely seek care – including peripheral laboratories, primary healthcare centres, and communities – allowing patients to start treatment sooner and reducing transmission.
“These new tools could be truly transformative for tuberculosis, by bringing fast, accurate diagnosis closer to people, saving lives, curbing transmission and reducing costs,” said WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “WHO calls on all countries to scale up access to these and other tools so every person with TB can be reached and treated promptly.”
Beyond TB, the new devices have the potential to test for other diseases such as HIV, mpox, and HPV, making diagnostics more patient-centred, equitable, and aligned with integrated, one-stop-shop health services for emerging and circulating diseases.
The guidelines also recommend easy-to-collect tongue swab samples for adults and adolescents who cannot produce sputum, enabling testing for people at higher risk of dying from TB. Additionally, a cost-saving sputum pooling strategy is recommended, where samples from several individuals are combined and tested together to reduce commodity costs and machine time, especially in settings with limited resources.
TB remains one of the world’s deadliest infectious killers. Each day, over 3,300 people die from the disease and more than 29,000 fall ill. While global efforts have saved an estimated 83 million lives since 2000, recent cuts in global health funding are threatening to reverse these gains. Uptake of rapid diagnostic tools has been slow in many countries due to high costs and reliance on centralised laboratories that require sample transport.
According to the WHO, scaling up proven solutions – including point-of-care urine tests for people living with HIV and near-point-of-care tests for those with and without HIV — can help close diagnostic gaps across all levels of the health system and advance toward universal access to TB and drug-resistance testing.
The new recommendations are part of WHO’s broader call on World TB Day 2026 under the theme “Yes! We can end TB: Led by countries, powered by people.”
WHO is urging governments and communities to:
Accelerate rollout of near-point-of-care diagnostic technologies and other innovations as part of comprehensive testing networks;
Strengthen people-centred TB care with meaningful community leadership and continuous engagement;
Build resilient health systems to safeguard health security;
Tackle the social and economic drivers of TB through multisectoral action;
Protect essential TB services amid global crises and funding constraints.
Dr Tereza Kasaeva, Director of WHO’s Department for HIV, Tuberculosis, Hepatitis and Sexually Transmitted Infections, emphasised the economic case for investment: “Investing in TB is a strategic political and economic choice, generating up to US$ 43 in health and economic returns for every dollar spent.”
The announcement also highlights the need for sustained investment in research and innovation. Global funding for TB research remains far below the estimated annual need of around US$ 5 billion, leaving major gaps in the development of new diagnostics, medicines, and vaccines.
WHO is working with partners to accelerate progress through initiatives such as the TB Vaccine Accelerator Council, launched to fast-track the development and equitable access to new TB vaccines by aligning governments, researchers, funders, and industry around shared priorities and coordinated investment.
As countries mark World TB Day 2026, the organisation is calling for decisive leadership, strategic investment, and rapid implementation of these recommendations to save lives and protect communities.
