Summary
Commentary by Blessina Kumar
The TB response and efforts towards elimination will be incomplete without addressing some huge barriers, one of which is ‘Stigma’. Due to a medicalized approach to TB, till recently, this was not considered an essential component to be mitigated in the TB care cascade.
Our experience of working with TB affected communities across the globe only reiterated the fact that to #EndTB we need to #EndStigma. Bringing the global stigma stories of women, children and men to the attention of donors, policy makers and implementers and at the HLM on TB in 2018, translated into ‘addressing stigma’ being one of the top 10 recommendations of the UNSG report.
The next step was ensuring country level advocacy to bring country leadership’s attention to stigma and steps towards addressing this. The first country we worked with is India and The Global Coalition of TB Activists (GCTA) along with partners [1] and the National TB Elimination Program (NTEP) developed the Strategy to End Stigma and Discrimination Associated with TB for the NTEP, Ministry of Health GOI.
The document was endorsed and launched at the World TB Day 2021 by the Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare, Govt of India, Dr. Harsh Vardhan. India is the first country to develop a strategy to end stigma and discrimination associated with TB. India with the highest TB burden also has the highest potential to be able to implement a people centered rights based response to TB.
We hope that other countries will use this as an example and develop their own strategic guidance to end stigma and end TB. We cannot end TB without ending stigma.
