After Years of Suffering, MDR-TB Patient Is "Joyful and Happy"

 

Vardan in Armenia has multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB). In 2013 he underwent surgery to remove his left lung. His treatment for MDR-TB has been arduous and painful. "During that seven year period [before surgery] I spent a total of eight months at home with my family. I spent the other six and a half years in hospitals." After surgery the side effects of his drugs became almost intolerable, but he persevered. Today, he still suffers from side effects but he is much improved. "I am joyful and happy with my family," he says. "I am young. I am 60 years old. I am still useful to my community."

 

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) treated nearly 30,000 TB patients in 2013 in 90 projects around the world.