TB Hits Tajikistan's Poorest
Southern Tajikistan is the focus of a widespread tuberculosis problem that appears closely linked to poverty.
TB Hits Tajikistan's Poorest
Southern Tajikistan is the focus of a widespread tuberculosis problem that appears closely linked to poverty.
Reporter Orzu Karim interviewed Marhaba, whose parents were too poor to send her for a check-up until the symptoms of TB were all too apparent. Then her mother borrowed to scrape together the money needed for treatment.
Even then, Marhaba had to contend with relatives who wanted her to take the treatment at home rather than endure what they saw as the stigma of going to the TB hospital. They thought it would make her less of a desirable marriage prospect.
Now undergoing treatment in hospital, Marhaba complains that people outside treat TB sufferers as dangerously contagious and turn away from them.