Posted on 13 October, 2012

Photo: An MSF doctor examines a young MDR-TB patient as a mental health counselor reads to him from a TB health education book. Tajikistan 2012 © Natasha Sergeeva Tajikistan’s “Heartbreaking Mosaic of ‘Family TB’” Voice From the Field For the first...

Photo: An MSF doctor examines a young MDR-TB patient as a mental health counselor reads to him from a TB health education book. Tajikistan 2012 © Natasha Sergeeva

Tajikistan’s “Heartbreaking Mosaic of ‘Family TB’”
Voice From the Field

For the first time, children in Tajikistan with multi drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) are receiving treatment for the life-threatening disease. MSF has opened a new ward in Machiton hospital, near Tajikistan’s capital of Dushanbe, where it plans to treat 60 to 100 children with TB and their family members over the next three months.

“Pediatric TB is a neglected disease, and there isn’t enough research and development, or any clear-cut advice, on how to treat it in children. Our project is significant—both for MSF and the world—because we are developing guidelines that simply didn’t exist before,” says Cindy Gibb, a MSF nurse working in this new treatment program. Read more of Cindy’s experience with this ground breaking work.