Belarus

Belarus

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What's happening in Belarus?

During the post-war years, Belarus was one of the most prosperous parts of the Soviet Union, but with independence came economic decline.

The eastern European country now has some of the highest rates of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) in the world. Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is working with the Ministry of Health in Belarus to treat patients with drug-resistant forms of the disease. Using a person-centred approach, MSF’s multidisciplinary teams provide treatment as well as psychosocial support to patients with drug-resistant TB.

In 2023, our team in the capital, Minsk, continued to provide technical support and assistance to the national TB programme. Following the publication of the World Health Organization’s updated guidelines in December 2022, which recommended the programmatic use of a new, six-month, all-oral treatment regimen for multidrug-resistant TB, MSF supported its implementation across the country.