“Say goodbye to your mother.” Taunts like this are typical of abuse suffered by people with TB in Zambia, where 50 to 70 per cent of adults with TB are HIV-positive.
The link in people’s minds between the two infections has created a stigma around TB that is leading people to hide their diagnosis and avoid getting help, says Virginia Bond at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. TB sufferers are called “moving coffins” and “coat hangers” because of their frailty. “We counted 104 insulting names,” says Bond, who spent seven months monitoring communities in Lusaka and Choma with Laura Nyblade at the International…
