The WHO has published a new handbook on the pharmacovigilance of medicines used in the treatment of tuberculosis (TB).

The handbook, which can be downloaded online, is designed to help health professionals reflect on a more systematic approach to surveillance of drug-related problems associated with TB. The handbook provides the practitioner with a step-by-step approach to implement pharmacovigilance activities as a standard of care for TB patients and provides useful information on registering adverse events, and how to assess for causality in an association between an adverse event and a medicine.

The preface to the handbook suggests that with the increasing use worldwide of more extensive regimens for drug-resistant TB, the addeduse of antiretrovirals (ARVs) in patients with HIV-associated TB, and the imminent advent of new classes of medicines to treat TB, the case for improved pharmacovigilancehas become stronger.

Another key message of the publication is that adverse drug reactions can lead to a patient interrupting tuberculosis treatment before completion, and thus contribute to avoidable morbidity, treatment failure, reduced quality of life, or death.

Handbook here.