The Patients' Charter for Tuberculosis Care

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"This is really a strategy co-owned by all: top-down and bottom-up converging!"
Dr. Mario Raviglione, Director. Stop TB / WHO

The Patients' Charter (PCTC) outlines the rights and responsibilities of people with tuberculosis. It empowers people with the disease and their communities through this knowledge. Initiated and developed by TB patients from around the world, the Charter makes the relationship with health care providers a mutually beneficial one.

The Charter sets out the ways in which patients, the community, health providers, both private and public, and governments can work as partners in a positive and open relationship with a view to improving tuberculosis care and enhancing the effectiveness of the health care process. It allows for all parties to be held more accountable to each other, fostering mutual interaction and a 'positive partnership'.

Developed in tandem with the International Standards for Tuberculosis Care to promote a 'patient-centered' approach, the Charter bears in mind the principles on health and human rights of the United Nations, UNESCO, WHO, Council of Europe, as well as other local and national charters and conventions.

The Patients' Charter practices the principle of Greater Involvement of People with TB or GIPT. This affirms that the empowerment of people with the disease is the catalyst for effective collaboration with health providers and authorities, and is essential to victory in the fight to stop TB. Accordingly, the PCTC is included as a key element of the WHO STOP TB Strategy, and was launched by Dr. Lee, DG of WHO on World TB Day 2006.

The Patients' Charter, the first global 'patient-powered' standard for care, is a cooperative tool, forged from common cause, for the entire TB Community.

PCTC Edition 2010 (HTML)