Stigma and Inequity in Tuberculosis Transmission and Control in the Philippines

Tuberculosis remains endemic in the Philippines despite decades of biomedical progress under the WHO End TB Strategy. This persistence reflects not a failure of medicine, but of systems that treat tuberculosis as a biomedical issue rather than a social one. While public health programs recognize community factors, stigma is still framed as a problem of awareness rather than a structural outcome of health institutions. Practices of isolation, surveillance, and labeling have normalized fear and exclusion, shaping how communities perceive and respond to the disease. By pathologizing patients rather than confronting inequities, institutions perpetuate the very stigma that hinders diagnosis and treatment. To end tuberculosis, national frameworks, especially in low- and middle-income settings, must become stigma-responsive by embedding social trust, accountability, and equity as measurable goals alongside cure rates. Only then can the End TB Strategy's promise of universality and dignity be realized.