New Delhi, Nov 25 (PTI) The stigma attached to tuberculosis is the biggest hindrance in reporting of the disease, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said on Wednesday and stressed on turning the fight against the disease to a people's movement to overcome all barriers.

Chairing a meeting with various developmental partners working in the field of tuberculosis care and management in India, he emphasised on the need for effective communication strategy focused on reaching the maximum population, complement with preventive, diagnostic and curative aspects of the disease.

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The Union minister urged the stakeholders to set up a collaborative platform where all the partners could join hands in the elimination of TB from India by 2025, according to an official statement.

He also highlighted the importance of strong political and administrative commitments from all states and Union territories.

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Vardhan stated there was also a need to address the stigma attached to the disease in a huge way as it hinders people from coming forward to report the disease and avail treatment.

He also urged the developmental partners to be involved in community-led monitoring and get real-time information about the challenges on the ground level, and feedback from the people.

"The support of all the partners is critical in eradicating tuberculosis. The country is relentlessly fighting COVID-19 pandemic for last 11 months. But... we should not lose the sight of the goal to eliminate TB by 2025.

"We have continued to focus on tuberculosis and every meeting for COVID has had TB as an agenda item," Vardhan was quoted as saying in the statement.

He said there was an 18 per cent and 12 per cent increase in case finding under National Tuberculosis Elimination Program in 2018 and 2019 respectively.

The private sector has also played an important role in TB notification.

There has been 77 per cent increase in the private sector notification from 3.8 lakhs in 2017 to 6.8 lakh in 2019. Over 2018 and 2019, commitment has been received from 15 states and UTs for Ending TB by 2025, Vardhan said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)