I couldn’t bring myself to believe that Kalyani was so untouched by my counseling in terms of stigma, and that even today on the day of her completing treatment, her fear of TB was still very much intact, leaving no room for acceptance that it is just a disease and that there is no need for it to be locked up like a skeleton in the cupboard.
This 36 year old soft spoken fragile looking lady was in tears the day I first met her when she was diagnosed with TB. “TB!!!” was her initial reaction and her face spelt absolute disbelief. Even after an hour of talking to her, she still seemed highly agitated. Why me? How would I tell my husband and mother in law? Please don’t reveal this to any body, don’t come to my house for home visits otherwise I would loose my life, I would end up homeless! , these were the statements she made on the first day. These statements are what she makes today also even after being cured. The intensity of her fear is still the same, absolutely undiluted till date in spite of all my efforts.
Kalyani attributes her fear to the fact that none of her family members would view TB as just a disease that spreads through air. They would discriminate her as cursed and sinful if they ever came to know. So I promised her that I would maintain confidentiality to the core and made arrangements accordingly for her to take treatment. At the same time I continuously kept trying to drive home the message that she could try to talk to her family members about the disease and that I would support her in doing so, but I remained in square one as far as this effort was concerned.
Seeing Kalyani cured today gives me the satisfaction of being instrumental in curing one more TB patient but at the same time a sense of inadequacy lingers behind my mind because of being unable to alter the level of stigma in this patient’s life.
The numbers of Kalyanis out there are many and there is still a big challenge for health professionals like us to handle.
(The patients name has been changed to maintain confidentiality)
Revathy
Field Staff
REACH Blog Team