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The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the European Respiratory Society (ERS) jointly developed European Union Standards for Tuberculosis Care (ESTC) aimed at providing European Union (EU)-tailored standards for the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of tuberculosis (TB).The International Standards for TB Care (ISTC) were developed in the global context and are not always adapted to the EU setting and practices. The majority of EU countries have the resources and capacity to implement higher standards to further secure quality TB diagnosis, treatment and prevention. On this basis, the ESTC were developed as standards specifically tailored to the EU setting.A panel of 30 international experts, led by a writing group and the ERS and ECDC, identified and developed the 21 ESTC in the areas of diagnosis, treatment, HIV and comorbid conditions, and public health and prevention. The ISTCs formed the basis for the 21 standards, upon which additional EU adaptations and supplements were developed.These patient-centred standards are targeted to clinicians and public health workers, providing an easy-to-use resource, guiding through all required activities to ensure optimal diagnosis, treatment and prevention of TB. These will support EU health programmes to identify and develop optimal procedures for TB care, control and elimination.

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The International Health Regulations (IHR) 2005, as the overarching instrument for global health security, are designed to prevent and cope with major international public health threats. But poor implementation in countries hampers their effectiveness. In the wake of a number of major international health crises, such as the 2014 Ebola and 2016 Zika outbreaks, and the findings of a number of high-level assessments of the global response to these crises, it has become clear that there is a need for more joined-up thinking between health system strengthening activities and health security efforts for prevention, alert and response. WHO is working directly with its Member States to promote this approach, more specifically around how to better embed the IHR (2005) core capacities into the main health system functions. This paper looks at how and where the intersections between the IHR and the health system can be best leveraged towards developing greater health system resilience. This merging of approaches is a key component in pursuit of Universal Health Coverage and strengthened global health security as two mutually reinforcing agendas.