TB

“The city I left as a young boy had changed. I came back to poverty, apathy, and a general sense of disillusionment. No one should go to bed at night on a hungry stomach. When I meet my maker I need to have my answers ready and be able to look at him and tell him I did all I could to make a difference,” he says.

Why it matters? Because India has the highest burden of both tuberculosis (TB) and drug-resistant tuberculosis in the world. #Innovation #HealthFirst

Why is the miracle of scientific development not used for the benefit of all patients? Do our lives not matter? Is our suffering excusable? Is your disregard acceptable? Who will be responsible for the catastrophe that unfolds later?

He states, “Despite a population of 1.3 billion, India has a mere 45 labs capable of distinguishing these TB types, which is 0.2 labs per million people. China, with its equivalent population, has 249 labs.”

Whether it is on a bus stand, amidst unmovable traffic, at religious gatherings, in local trains, slums, schools, colleges or hideouts for couples across the city, the man says that he is his own speaker and mic, spreading awareness about TB prevention and coughing etiquettes to all around him.

Stigma often goes hand-in-hand with discrimination or the social exclusion of individuals living with TB.

“Meeting Acharya Vinoba Bhave was an eye-opener for me. That was the moment I decided to work for the betterment of society and help those who need it the most.”

The state, usually in the news for terrorist activity and civil unrest, is estimated to have only nine deaths per 1000 live births, according to the health ministry report.

The research has been published in the journal Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.

According to WHO’s Global TB report 2015, India has the highest TB burden in the world. For people like Narendra, who develop extremely drug resistant TB, it is vital that new and promising drugs like bedaquiline and delamanid be made easily accessible and affordable.