World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for tuberculosis and lung diseases (ITA-80)

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In 2000 Fondazione Salvatore Maugeri was first designated by World Health Organization (WHO) as a Collaborating Centre (CC) for Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases. The prestigious honour is assigned directly by the Director of WHO Regional Office for Europe. Designated centers are present all over the world and create a network that support WHO programmes through the implementation of different activities.

Designation is renewed every four years based on the excellence of the activites performed.
Further details on WHO CC ITA-80 are available at the WHO Collaborating Centres Global database.

Director: Prof. Giovanni Battista Migliori
Designation: 2000
Redesignation based on the excellence of services provided: 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016
Next redesignation: 2020

Research in collaboration with WHO

Under WHO leadership, the WHO CC promotes, organizes, runs and publishes operational research projects relevant to TB and TB/HIV control and elimination as a tool for generating innovative and sound decision making. The WHO CC conducts research on the following research areas:

• TB Elimination, MDR/XDR-TB and LTBI
• TB pharmacology
• Active TB drug-safety monitoring and management (aDSM)
• Social determinants and risk factors for TB
• TB in migrants and vulnerable populations
• Effectiveness of pulmonary rehabilitation programmes in patients with TB sequelae.

Moreover, the WHO CC is conducting with WHO a global cohort study on COVID-19 and TB.

Global training of TB workforces based on WHO strategies

Global training includes international training courses on TB and TB/HIV management and control.

The overall goal of the training course is to further develop the necessary skills to plan, implement and evaluate a TB control programme, based on the WHO-recommended End TB Strategy, which has the long-term vision to eliminate TB as a public health problem. The course uses innovative approaches, being interactive and exercise based with a mixture of presentations, exercises, workshops, site visits and role plays.

Technical assistance to countries for TB control and elimination

By request of WHO the WHO CC performs missions in selected countries in all continents, to assess the TB control/pre- elimination situation, national strategic planning and programmes, to strengthen human resources and to provide technical assistance on TB and TB/HIV.

Technical assistance is also provided via the “TB Consilium”, a platform that enables experts to provide clinical advice for difficult-to-treat MDR or XDR-TB cases.

More info on the project  “A global cohort study on COVID-19 and tuberculosis”.