Lynne from Tennessee knew something was very wrong when she started
to cough up blood. Today with the right TB treatment she is cured I'd never really been sick in my life until I was diagnosed with
Tuberculosis. Starting in November of 2005.
My name is Jan and I'm from the Philippines. I am a DOTS treatment coordinator here in our locale. My first exposure about tuberculosis was when we discussed it in school. Upon knowing how this looks and how it can infect, it made me afraid before to think that this one small microbe can kill people. I was also afraid to mingle with patients already diagnosed with the disease for fear that I will get infected too.
Bojo was cured of TB, but he says that poor case management or where treatment is not directly observed has led to people dying where he lives.
My name is Bojo Jam Paite. I am 29 years old and from Manipur state in India (bordering with Burma). I was a hard-core heroin mainliner and have been HIV-positive for ten years.
SM - Coping with drinking, homelessness, TB and his first hospital visit.
This is my first time in hospital
as an adult. I have been here in isolation for over two
weeks as the doctors discovered tuberculosis in my body.
They reckon the TB could have been in my body for quite
a while.
John White - living with the double diagnosis - HIV / AIDS and MDR-TB
It
was in the beginning of 1986 when working with the church
in Africa, that I was first diagnosed HIV positive. At
that time this meant facing a death sentence, and I shortly
left my work and home of ten years there in Kenya, and
came back to Ireland to die.
Rupert - a surprise TB diagnosis while a football injury was being checked out
In October I broke my wrist
playing football. It was a straightforward injury and
pretty painless, but resulted in a few hospital visits.
When it was time to have the cast removed, I got in a
muddle and arrived an hour and a half early.
Sasha - a Ukranian's experience of TB treatment in London.
I came to London from the
Ukraine. I am a student. I was surprised by everything
that I have seen. After I stayed here for one and a
half months I started coughing. Sometimes just a few
seconds, sometimes longer.
Alexandria - coping with the Christmas Holiday.
The surprising news that I
had succumbed to a disease common in Victorian novels
was less affecting than the timing of it. I felt that
1998 had been so poor on a personal level that it stood
to reason I would contract a First Class disease when
everyone around me was catching the common cold!
Yasmine - a Somalian coping with multi drug resistant TB a long way from home
My name is Yasmine and I am originally from Somalia. My
first language is Arabic. I came to London on my own from
Saudi Arabia in 1998 when I was 17 years old. I was really
confused, could not speak English - I did not understand
a word. In 1998 I started college and studied for 2 months
until I became sick.
Jon
Page - Preventive therapy for people with HIV - as easy
as that?
It always seems to me that taking tablets without having
suffered any actual illness is one of the most difficult
things to do, especially when there is the added complication
of strictly keeping to a regime.
Bradley
offers hope to those on TB treatment and says that there
is light at the end of the tunnel.
My name is Bradley and I am originally
from London but now live in Manchester. I was diagnosed
as HIV positive in early 2005 after a particularly unsafe
sexual experience.I managed to deal with my diagnosis
by taking comfort from the many professionals who reassured
me that it would be many years before I would have to
worry about taking tablets or worry about symptoms.
How
I survived MDR-TB
My name is Paul and I live in London. I have been HIV-positive
for all of my adult life. I was diagnosed when I was
19 years old. A few years after becoming infected with
the virus, I started to become sick. I would find myself
from time to time being admitted to hospital. It is
one of these admissions in 1995 that I became infected
with Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis.
