13 Glossary
 

Term Definition 

Active TB disease 

(also known as 

tuberculosis) 

Advisory committee 

Attitude 

BCG 

Brainstorm 

Cavity 

CBO 

Chest x-ray 

An illness, caused by bacteria called Mycobacterium tuberculosis, in 

which tuberculosis (TB) bacteria are multiplying and attacking parts of 

the body, most commonly the lungs. A person with active TB disease is 

capable of spreading the disease to others if the TB bacteria are active 

in the lungs or throat. The symptoms of active TB disease include 

weakness, weight loss, fever, no appetite, chills, and sweating at night. 

Other symptoms of TB disease depend on where in the body the 

bacteria are growing. If TB disease is in the lungs (pulmonary TB), the 

symptoms may include a bad cough, pain in the chest, and coughing 

up blood. 

A type of partnership that brings together a group of experts to advise 

a specific organization. Members usually have diverse areas of 

expertise and come from a variety of TB stakeholder groups. They use 

their combined knowledge and skills to review, plan, and evaluate a 

specific agency’s TB strategies, activities, and impact. 

An individual’s predispositions toward an issue, person, or group, which 

influence his or her response to be positive or negative, favorable or 

unfavorable. 

A vaccine for TB named after the French scientists Calmette and 

Guérin. BCG is not widely used in the United States, but it is often 

given to infants and small children in other countries where TB is 

common. 

An idea-gathering group process in which a facilitator writes each oneword or one-phrase idea offered by a group member on a flip chart. 

Each member has one, or several, orderly opportunities to contribute. 

No ideas are discussed, evaluated, or excluded. 

A hole in the lung where TB bacteria have eaten away the surrounding 

tissue. If a cavity shows up on your chest x-ray, you are more likely to 

cough up bacteria and be infectious. 

See Community-based organization 

A picture of the inside of your chest. A chest x-ray is made by exposing 

a film to x-rays that pass through your chest. A doctor can look at this 

film to see whether TB bacteria have damaged your lungs. 

Forging Partnerships to Eliminate Tuberculosis: A Guide and Toolkit  

Chapter : Glossary 
Term Definition 

Coalition 

Collaboration 

Community 

Community-based 

organization (CBO) 

A type of partnership that brings together organizations that might 

normally compete and duplicate efforts. Partners undertake joint 

planning and coordinated action. Building a coalition requires sustained 

effort and the forging of long-term commitment among its members. 

Coalition goals often include raising awareness, implementing specific 

campaigns or projects, and improving services. Often, a TB coalition 

works on several activities at once through various subcommittees or 

task forces. The TB coalition usually serves as an umbrella organization 

to set agendas, solicit funding, handle marketing and publicity, and 

evaluate the progress of its subcommittees or task forces. 

Additional aspects that appear common to most coalitions include: 

Communication channels are formally established with partners’ 

interactions occurring in structured settings such as meetings. 

Authority and accountability for conducting coordinated actions usually 

falls on individual organizations. 

A type of partnership that brings together diverse stakeholder groups 

to define and address problems that no one member can resolve in 

isolation. Partners develop common goals and strategies, as well as a 

shared responsibility for creating the structures needed to implement 

them. It is a complex partnership consisting of well-defined, mutually 

beneficial relationships. Partners tend to have the full backing of their 

individual organizations. Resources are pooled or jointly secured for 

longer-term efforts. 

Collaborations are similar to coalitions, but with the following 

distinctions: 

Coalitions tend to bring together organizations with pre-existing 

common goals. Collaborations bring together organizations to create 

common goals. 

In coalitions, member organizations tend to maintain their pre-existing 

visions and approaches to their work. In collaborations, member 

organizations tend to align their visions and approaches with those 

developed by the collaboration. 

In coalitions, interaction tends to take place in structured settings, such 

as coalition meetings. In collaborations, communication and interaction 

among partners also frequently occurs informally between meetings. 

A system of people with common values and institutions who identify 

themselves as part of that common system. 

An organization that is located in a specific community and provides 

services to, and is managed and directed by, members of that 

community. 

8 Forging Partnerships to Eliminate Tuberculosis: A Guide and Toolkit 

Chapter : Glossary 
Term Definition 

A person who is formally or informally recognized as influential by a 

system of people with common values and institutions that identify 

themselves as part of that common system. 

A person who has spent time with a person with infectious TB. 

1.	 Integrated patterns of human behavior that include the language, 

thoughts, communications, actions, customs, beliefs, values, and 

institutions of racial, ethnic, religious, or social groups. 

2.	 A test to see whether there are TB bacteria in phlegm or other 

body fluids. This test can take 2 to 4 weeks in most laboratories. 

Having the capacity to function effectively as an individual and an 

organization within the context of the cultural beliefs, behaviors, and 

needs presented by consumers and their communities 

A way of helping patients take their medicine for TB. A patient getting 

DOT will meet with a health care worker every day or several times a 

week at a place on which both agree. This can be the TB clinic, home 

or work, or any other convenient location. The patient will take the 

medicine at this place. 

Occurs when organizations question the validity of their current 

operating systems, policies, procedures, and objectives. Assumptions 

underlying current perceptions are identified and questioned. The 

consistency between what the organization says it does and what it 

actually does is publicly tested. The goal of this learning process is 

to improve outcomes by fully accepting and exploring successes and 

mistakes. 

TB bacteria that can no longer be killed by a certain drug. 

TB disease in any part of the body other than the lungs (for example, 

the kidney or lymph nodes). 

Goals describe the overall mission of the partnership. They are broad, 

general statements that clearly portray general improvements you wish 

to make. 

Populations at high risk of being exposed to and infected with M. 

tuberculosis (e.g., close contacts; persons from high-prevalence 

nations; the elderly; medically underserved, low-income populations; 

migrant farm workers; homeless persons; residents of long-term 

facilities; persons who inject drugs) or who are at a particularly high risk 

for the development of TB disease once infected (e.g., persons with 

HIV infection and persons recently infected with M. tuberculosis). 

Infection with the human immunodeficiency virus, the virus that causes 

AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome). A person with both latent 

TB infection and HIV infection is at very high risk for TB disease. 

Community leader 

Contact 

Culture 

Cultural competence 

Directly observed 

therapy (DOT) 

Double-loop learning 

Drug-resistant TB 

bacteria 

Extrapulmonary TB 

Goal 

High-risk populations 

HIV infection 

Forging Partnerships to Eliminate Tuberculosis: A Guide and Toolkit  

Chapter : Glossary 
Term Definition 

Infectious TB 

Infectious person 

Isoniazid (INH) 

Latent TB infection 

(LTBI) 

Leadership 

Media advocacy 

Miliary TB 

Multidrug-resistant TB 

(MDR TB) 

Multisector 

partnership 

Mycobacterium 

tuberculosis 

Network 

Objectives (see also 

SMART objectives) 

Partnership 

TB disease of the lungs or throat, which can be spread to other people. 

A person who can spread TB to others because he or she is expelling 

TB bacteria into the air. 

A drug used to prevent TB disease in people who have latent TB 

infection. INH is also one of the five drugs often used to treat TB 

disease. 

A condition in which TB bacteria are alive but inactive in the body. 

People with latent TB infection have no symptoms, do not feel sick, 

cannot spread TB to others, and usually have a positive skin-test 

reaction. People with latent TB infection may develop active TB disease 

later in life if they do not receive treatment for latent TB infection. 

Treatment for people with latent TB infection prevents them from 

developing TB disease. 

Effective leadership usually consists of an overall coordinator, an 

organizational driver, and committed partners who consistently support 

the partnership’s ground rules, vision, and projects. 

The strategic use of mass media to reframe issues, shape public 

discussion, or build support for a policy, point of view, or environmental 

change. 

TB disease that has spread to the whole body through the bloodstream. 

TB disease caused by TB bacteria resistant to at least rifampin and 

isoniazid, the two most potent first-line drugs used to treat TB. 

A partnership that includes more than one segment (sector) of 

a society or community (e.g., health care professionals, at-risk 

populations, government entities, businesses or commercial ventures, 

health care institutions, and institutions of higher learning) 

Bacteria that cause latent TB infection and TB disease. 

A partnership whose primary purpose is to promote the exchange of 

information and ideas. Network membership can be formal or informal. 

Networks do not usually demand significant time or effort from their 

members; instead, they assist members in carrying out their individual 

work. 

Objectives state the expected result. They are the specific, measurable, 

attainable, realistic and time-framed (SMART) outcomes that are partial 

accomplishments of the goal. 

For the purposes of this document, a partnership is defined as the 

bringing together of diverse stakeholders to increase the ability of all 

members to share, understand, and value their diverse viewpoints and 

to improve TB prevention and control outcomes through cooperative 

work and respectful relationships. 

00 Forging Partnerships to Eliminate Tuberculosis: A Guide and Toolkit 

Chapter : Glossary 
Term Definition 

Marketing activities designed to raise the public’s awareness about a 

product, service, individual, or issue; management of an organization’s 

public image that helps the public understand the organization and its 

products. 

TB disease that occurs in the lungs, usually producing a cough that 

lasts longer than 2 weeks. Most TB disease is pulmonary. 

Bacteria that can no longer be killed by a certain drug. 

Occurs when organizations, such as partnerships, focus exclusively on 

fine-tuning their existing operating systems, policies, and practices. 

The application and adaptation of commercial marketing concepts 

to the planning, development, implementation, and evaluation of 

programs that are designed to bring about behavior change to improve 

the welfare of individuals or their society. Social marketing emphasizes 

thorough market research to identify and understand the intended 

audience and what is preventing them from adopting a certain health 

behavior, and to then develop, monitor, and constantly adjust a 

program to stimulate appropriate behavior change. Social marketing 

programs can address any or all of the traditional marketing mix 

variables—product, price, place, or promotion. 

Program outcomes that are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, 

and time-framed (SMART). See the Planning With Partners Worksheet 

in the Toolkit. 

A process used to see whether there are TB bacteria in phlegm. To do 

this process, lab workers smear the phlegm on a glass slide, stain the 

slide with a special stain, and look for any TB bacteria on the slide. This 

test usually takes 1 day. 

Phlegm coughed up from deep inside the lungs. Sputum is examined 

for TB bacteria using a smear; part of the sputum can also be used to 

do a culture. 

See TB stakeholder 

A situation or circumstance that is seen as detracting from a person’s 

character or reputation. 

The overall approaches a program takes. 

A type of partnership that is often used to coordinate an intense, shortterm effort that requires input from many diverse groups. Partners 

agree to complete a specific and well-defined task within a specified 

period of time. Task forces are most often formed to resolve a specific 

problem or crisis. 

Public relations 

Pulmonary TB 

Resistant bacteria 

Single-loop learning 

Social marketing 

SMART objectives 

Smear 

Sputum 

Stakeholder 

Stigma 

Strategy 

Task force 

Forging Partnerships to Eliminate Tuberculosis: A Guide and Toolkit 0 

Chapter : Glossary 
Term Definition 

A test that is often used to detect latent TB infection. A liquid called 

tuberculin is injected under the skin on the lower part of the arm. If a 

person has a positive reaction to this test, they probably have latent TB 

infection. 

TB skin test, negative, usually refers to a skin test result. If a person 

has a negative TB skin test reaction, they probably do not have latent 

TB infection. 

TB skin test, positive, usually refers to a skin test result. If a person 

has a positive TB skin test reaction, they probably have latent TB 

infection. 

Any group or individual impacted by TB; thus, they have a stake in 

preventing and controlling the disease. 

A liquid that is injected under the skin on the lower part of the arm 

during a TB skin test. If a person has latent TB infection, they will 

probably have a positive reaction to the tuberculin. 

See also “Active TB disease” and “Latent TB infection” 

TB skin test 

TB stakeholder 

Tuberculin 

Tuberculosis (TB) 

*Some	definitions	contained	in	this	glossary	were	obtained	from	theCenters	for	Disease	Control	and	Prevention	 

Division	of	Tuberculosis	Education,	the	Department	of	Health	and	Human	Services	Office	of	Minority	Health,	 

and	the	publication	Making Health Communication Programs Work	(National	Cancer	Institute,	2002)	 

0 Forging Partnerships to Eliminate Tuberculosis: A Guide and Toolkit 

Chapter : Glossary