18-year-old Mouniratou in Bobo-Dioulassou is happiness itself. Two weeks ago she took her last pill, putting an end to a six-month long treatment for tuberculosis, still a major public health problem in Burkina Faso. More than 2700 new cases were reported in 2008.
When Dorothy*, a single mother of five, told her neighbours in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, she had tuberculosis (TB), she expected sympathy and maybe even offers of help. Instead, she found herself so severely ostracized, she felt she had to move out.
TANZANIA is one of the 22 countries with the highest Tuberculosis burden in the world, despite having a well-functioning TB programme, based on World Health Organisation (WHO) strategy for the last 25 years.
The United Nations-backed Global Fund has approved new grants worth $2.4 billion for projects aimed at fighting AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in low-income countries over the next two years.
