‘Forgotten’ TB patients speak out

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We still lack knowledge on how to support people with the killer disease.

It took almost two years of consistent visits to public health facilities before 32-year-old Gundo Tshishonge was finally diagnosed with multi-drug resistant TB.

South Africa has the highest number of drug-resistant TB cases per capita in the world, thanks mainly to weaknesses in SA’s TB treatment programme and the massive burden of HIV. In 2017, 1.6 million people died from TB, including about 300 000 people living with HIV. Despite the high burden of MDR TB, Tshishonge said doctors had been confused about what was making him sick. Tshishonge said residents in the village thought he was HIV-positive because he lost weight and when he informed them he had TB, some kept their distance from him in fear that he might pass the TB to them.

Magdalene Thomas, a community-based care worker, says there is still a lot of stigma attached to TB and this is driving the spread of MDR in communities. MDR patients are supposed to wear masks in public to prevent the spread of the bacteria.

 

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