Stop TB Partnership

TB Screening Can Save a Life

By Patrick Amah - GRADE Foundation (Nigeria)

Ms. Esther Oji is a 38 years old woman living in a rural Nigerian community. Like so many other women in her area, she faces significant difficulties in accessing proper health care. Without nearby TB screening, Ester's TB infection went undiagnosed and rapidly became life threatening. A village-based health worker trained by the GRADE foundation on a CFCS grant discovered Ester at a point of near death. The health worker alerted the local NTP supervisor, who took Esther to be tested for TB at the nearest microscopy centre. She was immediately placed on treatment.

Stigma is still attached to many of those in Ester's position. Due to low amounts of health education and awareness, the transmission of TB is approached with unease and misunderstanding.

Esther has been abandoned by her only living relative and friends. She now lives alone in a dilapidated building whose owner has long passed away. She finds it very difficult to secure sufficient amounts of food and has become dependent on her neighbours who kindly give her leftovers. Esther often lives on only one meal a day and has been forced to go without food for days at a time. This makes her fight much more difficult because she requires proper nutrition to take her medicines.

Esther’s case is one of many that go unreported, resulting in the death of thousands who are infected with TB in the remote rural villages of Nigeria. A lack of awareness combined with poor access to screening and treatment is a deadly combination.

Esther’s discovery and placement on treatment is evidence that CFCS funded projects can promote understanding among rural populations that TB is curable and treatment is free and available. This awareness will save lives. Esther's story further highlights the need for grassroots organizations to join in the fight against TB. Government interventions, especially TB/HIV interventions, are not reaching the remote and rural populations in Nigeria.

As of Thursday March 3, 2011, Esther has been on treatment for just six weeks and is already noticing that the intensity of her coughing is subsiding and that she can now manage to stand on her feet as her strength is gradually returning.

A Year Later: A Remarkable Recovery and a New Start

Esther is well and fit again to start her normal life. Her most pressing challenge now is how to acquire a bit of capital to start her own small business so that, with time, she may either move into a decent accommodation or repair the abandoned house in which she was quarantined to die during the peak of her TB illness.

Esther has committed to join the GRADE Foundation to fight TB in the rural villages as a living testimonial to the local people that TB can be cured FREE of charge.