IFGH 2010: Breaking Silos: Addressing Poverty to improve TB control in High Burden countries

TB continues to affect society’s most vulnerable – those who live in abject poverty, are marginalized or economically and socially isolated.

Social and economic determinants at individual, household and community levels affect a person’s vulnerability to TB.

Special situations such as massive population movements – the displacement of people and refugee flows – and living or working in particular conditions also increase the risk of a person contracting TB.

In developed countries, ethnic minorities and other marginalized communities are at a greater risk of contracting the disease.

Factors such as social isolation, reduced access to health services, a lack of trust in the health system and lack of organized community voices exacerbate the risk of TB spreading.

About one billion people live in urban slums and over the next 30 years that number is expected to double. In the poorest countries, about 80% of the urban population lives in slums. The burden of TB is often far greater in these urban settings than in rural areas.

TB reduces people’s ability to work and earn a living and that TB control programmes have the potential to reduce poverty.

There is a need to combat TB by addressing the barriers faced due to poverty such as infrastructural, housing, employment, educational and nutritional deficiencies.

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