TY - GEN AU - Calumba, Ermee Gild S. AU - Legaspi-Villanueva, Nonnette (Chairperson). AU - Rodriguez, Jan Krisna M. (External Expert). AU - Mijares, Jacinth Lois (Defense Panel Member). TI - Strategies in combating the stigma of TB disease in Maigo, Lanao del Norte KW - Tuberculosis KW - Philippines KW - Patients KW - Rehabilitation KW - Infectious/Communicable Disease N1 - Graduate School of Public and Development Management N2 - The purpose of this study was to employ certain strategies in combating the stigma of TB disease in the community. Initially, the knowledge of the residents and TB symptomatic patients on TB disease and its transmission was determined. Also, the existence of TB stigma was investigated. This study applied the interview type of questioning to the key informants. Subjects chosen were the residents of the Municipality of Maigo with 273 individuals, the TB symptomatic with 30 subjects, 7 active TB patients and 12 former TB patients. The residents were chosen through utilizing the Slovin's formula to get the sample size while the TB symptomatic and former TB patients were chosen through the Community Health Team (CT) reports and the Rural Health Unit (RHU) logbook on TB patients and treatment cards. Presence of stigma was obtained through anwering a Yes or No questions with a grading criteria based on stigma perception of self, in the family and in the community. The results showed that both the population of the residents and the TB symptomatic patients have stigma toward TB disease. While active TB patients have perceive stigma. Awareness campaign was employed to educate the subjects on the facts of TB disease and to correct their misconceptions. Influence agents were selected as a strategy to combat the existing stigma in the community. The CHT was chosen to represent the core group of the influence agents support group and was tasked to disseminate information on the facts of TB disease and to correct misconceptions. Families of the former TB patients were also employed for support ER -