Patient Stories

Rajkumar comes to clinic on his own

At the age of just 8, Rajkumar (right) has been diagnosed with TB. He feels a constant weakness in his limbs, along with suffering from an occasional cough. Rajkumar lives with his parents and brother - they all live in a single room in fairly crowded conditions.

The little boy visits the TB Alert centre alone; his father is working and his mother is unwilling to bring him there for fear of being stigmatised. She is scared that people will avoid their family if they know he has TB. This is not an unjustified fear - In India it is not uncommon for men to lose their jobs or women to be cut off from their families just because they have TB. Part of the centre's work is to go into the communities like the one where Rajkumar lives and raise awareness and understanding to tackle this sort of stigma and discrimination within the society.

Rajkumar went to a diagnostic centre - Safdarjung, where he had a sputum test and chest x-ray. He is currently sputum negative which means he is not infectious (children of this age are very unlikely to be infectious). Rajkumar attends school from 2.30pm to 6pm every day. However, he has to miss school every time he visits the clinic. He is determined to get better, which is why he is more than willing to reliably attend his appointments at the centre. He hopes to complete his education and have a successful career of some sort in the future.

Bala is feeling well enough to manage the housework now

Bala (right - sitting at the desk), who lives in Delhi with her husband, is about 35 years old (she is unsure of her exact age). She lives in a house with three rooms: one room is occupied by a shop that her husband runs, while the other two rooms are shared by the family. She had three sons and one daughter. Sadly, two years ago, one son aged 18 died for reasons that were then unknown. Bala was very upset when this happened, and as a result, stopped working; she used to do some stitching and sewing. Quite soon after this, she started vomiting and suffered from a prolonged severe cough. She experienced loss of appetite, a reduction in body weight and high fever accompanied by night sweats. One year after her son’s death, she was diagnosed with TB by a doctor in her village, and was advised to get an investigation done. She began attending the TB Alert Delhi clinic three times a week; now she comes once a week. It takes Bala about 10 minutes to get to the centre, usually costing her Rs 2 by bus or Rs 5 by auto. Since attending the clinic, Bala has been feeling much better. Previously, she had to give up doing housework. Now, however, she can manage to do everything independently, with her daughter-in-law helping her from time to time. She says that does not know anyone who has TB, but has told everyone that she herself has it because she thinks knowledge is important to fight stigma. Bala proudly told us of the success of her children, saying that her daughter is now a teacher in a school, while one son is a tailor. She says that with the continual support from her family and the staff at the TB Alert clinic, her life is starting to get back on track.

Ganga walks for half an hour to come to clinic

Ganga Devi (standing on the scales), who is 32 years old, lives with her husband, who owns a clothes shop in Delhi. She has been working in an export company factory as a thread-cutter for the past five years, earning about Rs 2000 per month (£25). She works six days per week from 10am to 6.30 pm, and is given a holiday every Sunday. Ganga started to get a a cough and fever, which was followed by a loss in weight. She has been attending the Delhi DOTS clinic once a week for the past five months. Although it takes her more than half an hour to reach the clinic by foot, Ganga is more than willing to make the trip. Ever since she began treatment, she has felt a considerable improvement in her health, and is grateful to the clinic for their help.

Shobha Ram has TB again

Shobha Ram is a 66 year old labourer, who works from time to time, earning about Rs 60 per day (less than £1 per day). He has four sons, three of whom he has not seen in nearly fifteen years. He lives with his wife and one of his sons. Five years ago, Shobha Ram started to have breathing difficulties. After going to a local hospital, he was told that he had a collapsed lung, and that they could not do anything for him. He lost a lot of weight, weighing 40kg prior to treatment. But eventually he was diagnosed with TB and given free treatment for 6 months, upon which he started to gain weight once again; he is now 49kg. However, he fell unwell again six months after completion of his treatment, and has been attending the Delhi DOTS centre ever since then. He hopes this time his TB will go away for good.

Pappu wants to get back to work

Six years ago, Pappu (sitting on the red chair) left school in Rajasthan and came to live with his brother’s family in Delhi. Now, at the age of 18, he is learning how to repair televisions. He is proud to be learning a trade and supporting himself but now he cannot work because he has TB.

Pappu has to walk 3km to the TB Alert clinic at Lal Kuan in the South East corner of Delhi.  He finds this exhausting but he is happy to go because he knows he will get better if he finishes his treatment.  He hopes to recover as quickly as possible so that he can start working again.