“I was certain that I was going to die,” said 25-year-old Ifrah in Somaliland, of her battle with tuberculosis.
It’s not something we should be hearing in 2017. An illness old enough to have been known as ‘consumption’ or ‘The White Plague’ should have its place in medical history — not claiming 1.8 million lives a year. But claiming lives it is, especially in the developing world.
The year’s theme for World Tuberculosis Day is “leave no one behind.” This holds special meaning for me. I’ve just returned from Somalia, the place with the highest incidence of TB in the world. Drought has brought the entire region to its knees, making families more vulnerable than ever to infectious illness. Read More