The Stop TB Partnership recently published Every Word Counts, Suggested Language and Usage for Tuberculosis Communications, the language guide for those involved, either directly or indirectly, in addressing the tuberculosis epidemic. The document called for people with TB infection to be put at the centre of the global TB response, starting with “acknowledging that the language commonly used to speak about TB must evolve.”
Our decades of working with people with HIV and AIDS taught us, as the guide suggests, that “language influences stigma, beliefs and behaviors, and may determine if a person feels comfortable with getting tested or treated.”
Yet, I wonder whether part of reason for producing the Every Word Counts document is that TB caregivers and service providers, doctors, nurses, lab technicians and DOT providers risk treating TB patients like problems to be solved, rather than people to be helped and healed.