The country with the world’s highest tuberculosis burden has launched an ambitious plan to eradicate the deadly disease by 2025, five years ahead of the global target.

Leaders from across the globe have converged in New Delhi for the Delhi End TB Summit hosted by the Government of India, the Stop TB Partnership and the World Health Organization.

Speaking at the summit in the Indian capital on March 13, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the TB-free India Campaign.

A target has been set to end TB globally by 2030. I would like to announce that we have set an aim to eradicate it from India five years ahead by 2025.

The campaign puts the country’s strategy to end TB announced last year into effect.

India’s National Strategic Plan 2017-2025 as part of the Revised National Control Programme aims to rapidly scale up the number of people who are tested and successfully treated for TB, with a focus on active case finding.

To do so, health workers will target vulnerable groups over the next four years including slum and prison communities, hard-to-reach rural areas and populations known to have high rates of malnutrition.

Emphasis will also be placed on strengthening the private sector, where more than half of TB patients seek care.

Read the full article on eliminating TB by Sophie Cousins at Devex International Development