Faith and Tuberculosis: Experience and Opportunity

Tuberculosis (TB) is attracting new international interest, reflecting concern for high mortality from TB, the public health challenges it presents, and TB’s special impact on poor and vulnerable populations. The WHO’s End TB Strategy lays out ambitious goals that cannot be achieved without broad mobilization, and there are large opportunities for stronger partnerships with faith-inspired organizations (FIOs) at global and country levels. An often underestimated menace, TB shares features with HIV and AIDS and other diseases that demand active community understanding and support, both to ensure sustained and quality care and to combat stigma. Various FIOs currently play significant roles in both program execution and advocacy at global, national, and community levels, but an aggregate view of their roles and assessment of performance are lacking. Different faith-linked institutions—both transnational FIOs and congregational structures—could play more active roles in both international and national partnerships, and there is wide scope for engagement at community level. A useful next step would be to document actual and potential roles of faith-inspired actors in two or three high burden countries with the goal of outlining practical action strategies that could enhance program impact there and refine lessons for global efforts.