Miracle of TB medicine

We see a whole lot of TB here, everyday we see TB in the lungs, the abdomen, the brain, the spine, around the heart and other places as well.  We see people who are in a coma, who after a few weeks are talking and walking.  We see people who are paralyzed on one side, or who have significant weakness on one side of their body and after a number of weeks, they are walking again on their own.  We see people with fluid around their heart or lung and after just a few days/weeks - the fluid is gone as the medicine starts working.

Junior was one of these miracles.  It has taken 5 months, but he went from a coma, not talking, having weakness of one side of his body, to being awake and talking, but confused and with headaches and vision problems, to then walking and talking and returning to almost the same young man he was before as he was discharged.  The 5 months weren't easy, there were tears and frustrations, but also lots of prayers and care by his family and our TB staff and now a happy home going.

Tuberculosis is a disease that has the potential to wreck a lot of havoc on those it infects, but thankfully the medicines have the power to do so much good.  We would be seeing hundreds of patients each year who would be dying from TB, if it weren't for the medicines we have.  We are starting to see some resistance, having about 5 patients in the past 2 years, but so far, for most everyone, our standard 4 drug regimen is still effective and doing it's job.  Medicine still has a long way to go to curing a lot of diseases through medicine, and TB is certainly one of them, but I am sure thankful that for many here, the diagnosis of TB can end in a cure for that person.