A Community Rights and Gender Assessment of Tuberculosis Diagnosis,Treatment and Care in Lebanon

Abstract

TB remains a significant global health challenge despite being preventable and curable. The Global Plan to End TB 2023–2030 is underpinned by a rights-based, public health and people-centred approach to ending TB. Lebanon is a low TB endemic country, where for the first time a community, rights, and gender (CRG) assessment of the national TB response was conducted in 2024. Despite the universal availability and cost-free access to TB care in Lebanon, systemic barriers continue to hinder patient accessibility. Low disease awareness, transportation costs, financial challenges, and pervasive stigma frequently compel individuals to conceal their TB diagnosis, thereby undermining contact tracing and treatment adherence. Beyond medical treatment, TB patients receive minimal psychosocial or financial support, disproportionately affecting key vulnerable groups who are already marginalized in Lebanese society. Insufficient community engagement and chronic funding shortages further weaken the Lebanese TB response. While Lebanon upholds advanced medical protocols, its outdated TB laws fail to protect crucial patient rights, including privacy, confidentiality, and informed consent. Gender disparities also persist, with a lack of gender-specific data to inform policies, and inadequate sensitization among healthcare personnel (e.g., transgender women, women with HIV, women who use drugs). There is a pressing need for accountability mechanisms for TB program implementers and labor protections to prevent workplace discrimination against TB patients. Strengthening the National TB Program and addressing the structural deficiencies in Lebanon through targeted interventions, legal reforms, and a gender-inclusive, rights-based approach is essential to ensuring available, accessible, acceptable and quality TB services in Lebanon.