In this photofilm, Happiness Dlamini talks about what her life is like on treatment for drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB).
Happiness, who has a four-year old daughter and an eleven-year old son, lives in the Shiselweni Region of Swaziland.
In 2003 she discovered that she was HIV positive and last year she found out she also was infected with DR-TB.
She’s undergoing an arduous two-year treatment course which requires her to take 15 pills each day as well as get a painful daily injection for six months. .
The side effects of the drugs she has to take are severe and debilitating. Patients on these drugs can experience a wide range of side effects that include persistent nausea, psychosis, kidney problems and profound deafness.
Patients also have to adjust the way they live with their families to reduce the risk of transmitting the disease to them and others in the community. This can fracture relationships and lead to a terrible sense of isolation.
All photos by Krisanne Johnson
MSF and TB in Swaziland
MSF started treating patients with drug-resistant TB in Swaziland at the start of 2008 and is currently treating 157 drug-resistant TB patients in Shiselweni Region alongside the teams of the National TB Control programme.
