https://www.gavi.org/vaccineswork/pakistans-drive-end-tuberculosis
"Seven months ago, 66-year-old Mehfooz Begum of Gujar Khan Tehsil in Punjab,
Pakistan, visited a private health clinic looking for answers.
For some time, Mehfooz had been gripped by severe coughing attacks. Recently
she had grown weak, and pale, and was now struggling to eat properly, according
to her daughter, Sania Hammad. Sania, worried, scheduled the appointment.
The doctor’s verdict landed as anything but a comfort: Mehfooz had
tuberculosis.
Tuberculosis, a bacterial infection most commonly affecting the lungs, is the
world’s deadliest infectious disease, killing an estimated 1.5 million people
worldwide each year. In Pakistan, which bears the fifth greatest TB burden in
the world, some 46,000 died of the illness in 2020 alone.
“To discover my mother was suffering from one of the deadliest diseases in the
country was shocking,” recalls Sania. “And then, discovering that the medicine
[she needed] was not available in the private sector was stressful.” Private
healthcare has a better reputation than government-run hospitals, Sania
explains, so the resource shortfall came as an unwelcome surprise.
On the recommendation of the diagnosing physician, but not without trepidation,
Sania took her mother to the government-run Tehsil Headquarters Hospital (THQ)
of Gujar Khan for treatment. At THQ’s TB control unit, Sania’s wariness proved
misplaced. Not only were drugs and clinical tests here provided to Mehfooz for
free, but the staff, in particular a senior nurse called Khadija Shaheen, were
strikingly attentive. Before long, Mehfooz was on the mend.
“Today I am happy that my mother has recovered significantly from the deadly
disease, although she still has a year of medication before the disease is
completely defeated,” says Sania."
Via
Future Crunch issue 189:
https://futurecrunch.com/
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
