Care for the forgotten is key to eradicating tuberculosis

Gloria lives in a makeshift hut in a squatter area of a large Asian city. She works long hours selling simple handicrafts on the street to provide food for her children. Their situation was precarious already, but then Gloria contracted tuberculosis, though she didn't know it.

It started with a cough, then she became weak, and then she felt feverish. Soon, she couldn't work at all. Gloria tried to get treatment from local healers and doctors who prescribed medicine she could hardly afford, but her health still did not improve.

After all her money was exhausted and her debts grew too high to borrow more, and after many hungry nights and days, she was finally taken to a health centre. Gloria was diagnosed with TB and received free treatment.

After several days, her health improved, and she went back to work. A catastrophe was averted, but recovering from the massive debt she incurred will take some time.

"Gloria" stands for hundreds of thousands of real people across Asia and the Pacific, and indeed millions all over the world, who experience immense suffering from what is a curable illness with free treatment provided by governments across the region.

TB has long been associated with poverty, unfairly preying on the most vulnerable among us.

While Gloria eventually found treatment, for many others the story doesn't turn out well. People with untreated TB slowly waste away to a painful death. And before dying, they expel millions of microbes through a deep persistent cough, often infecting loved ones and others with whom they come into close contact.