Page 23 - TB: The Ticking Time Bomb
P. 23
“ People are afraid of talking about TB. I have faced this problem in my own
house. We have a joint family of 12 people. When my younger brother got married,
we were not told that his wife got TB before she got married. It is when she got
pregnant that we got to know about her medical condition and it is much worse than
before.
She had MDR TB during her pregnancy. The hospitals and DOTS centres we visited
said that they don’t have facilities for pregnant patients - either go to gynaecology
department or to a TB centre.
Finally after nine months of hell, she gave birth to a baby girl in a government
hospital. The newborn baby is also taking the TB meds for one year so that she
doesn’t get the infection from her mother. Kindly tell the government to take steps in
the right direction.
” - Monali
“ I was a Tuberculosis patient. I recovered from it after 2 years. I want to share
an experience. I was coughing for more than 6 months. I showed it to several doctors
in Kolkata. No one said that I can have TB. A medicine shopkeeper said that he
observed that I have been coughing for a long time and asked me to please go ahead
and get a TB test done. We did not believe that.
We went to Kolkata’s best MD in a very well-known hospital. Unfortunately, he gave
me all kinds of antibiotics for cough relief but my illness still persisted. I was going
weaker day by day. I started vomiting blood and a small doctor in my locality could
understand that I was suffering from TB and my lungs were fully spoiled.
- Joanita ”
21
house. We have a joint family of 12 people. When my younger brother got married,
we were not told that his wife got TB before she got married. It is when she got
pregnant that we got to know about her medical condition and it is much worse than
before.
She had MDR TB during her pregnancy. The hospitals and DOTS centres we visited
said that they don’t have facilities for pregnant patients - either go to gynaecology
department or to a TB centre.
Finally after nine months of hell, she gave birth to a baby girl in a government
hospital. The newborn baby is also taking the TB meds for one year so that she
doesn’t get the infection from her mother. Kindly tell the government to take steps in
the right direction.
” - Monali
“ I was a Tuberculosis patient. I recovered from it after 2 years. I want to share
an experience. I was coughing for more than 6 months. I showed it to several doctors
in Kolkata. No one said that I can have TB. A medicine shopkeeper said that he
observed that I have been coughing for a long time and asked me to please go ahead
and get a TB test done. We did not believe that.
We went to Kolkata’s best MD in a very well-known hospital. Unfortunately, he gave
me all kinds of antibiotics for cough relief but my illness still persisted. I was going
weaker day by day. I started vomiting blood and a small doctor in my locality could
understand that I was suffering from TB and my lungs were fully spoiled.
- Joanita ”
21
