My project on tuberculosis in the former Soviet Union is a collaboration with two organizations – Doctors Without Borders/MSF and Stop TB Partnership. For years, both of these organizations have been working to ensure tuberculosis will get eradicated. It is an easily curable disease but still, thousands of people die around the world.
This disease received a lot attention in Africa and Asia, but I felt, it was under-reported in the former Soviet Union. Both MSF and Stop TB agreed with me, as statistically, this region is most worrying – there is an epidemic and the number of cases is continuing to grow. There are several MSF clinics in Uzbekistan, which I visited – in this country, poor public health is just one of the problems.
A bigger one is stigma: everyone abandons a person sick with tuberculosis, and people are afraid to seek treatment. All of this of course, escalates the situation. Psychologists from MSF try to comfort women abused by their husbands simply because they contracted the disease from a relative, and so on.
MSF also works with tuberculosis in Russia’s Northern Caucasus, where I have also traveled. Just like in Central Asia, in Russia and in Ukraine, stigma and lack of proper information are the main factors contributing to the epidemic. That is why, I believe, both of these organizations are supporting my work. Once more people are aware of what is happening just around the corner, countless lives will be saved. It is that easy.
