Stigma rife on MDR-TB patients in Kenya

Submitted by Henry Neondo (henry) about 1 year ago

Despite Kenya’s successful war on TB, patients however recount a retinue of incidents of stigma from their homes, workplace and public offices.

A group of people basks in the morning on the lawns of the Kenyatta National Hospital, the scorching sun notwithstanding.

A stray dog darts here and there in the vicinity may be in its effort to have something for its stomach but to the group it’s a nice spectacle to kill boredom.

The previously docile group springs up and heads to one of the tents erected at a corner far end of the Hospital compound. “Most people are not used to the masks we wear.

They perceive us strangely,” says an outspoken Titus Kyalo. He is among the 27 Multi Drug Resistant –TB (MDR-TB) patients seeking treatment at the facility.

Titus, 36, was diagnosed with TB June 2006 at the Aga Khan Hospital, Mombasa where he had worked for sixteen years as an accountant and at times could step in as a supervisor.

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Keywords: MDR-TB TB

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