FAISALABAD: Javed has lost his parents and two brothers to tuberculosis (TB) in the last 16 years and now he is also diagnosed as having the infectious disease.

He lives in a two-marla house with his younger brother Wajid in Iqbal Town, Ghulam Muhammad Abad.

Other than the deadly disease, Javed is going through the financial crunch as he was laid off on Nov 29 from a weaving factory because of gas loadshedding. His brother Wajid has also been jobless for several months. The only income mean for them is the rent of a room of their house.

He says they get Rs2,500 as rent which is insufficient to buy two meals a day through a month.

Despite financial problems, Javed, however, is determined to fight the infection.

“The killer TB snatched my parents and two brothers at four-year intervals,” he says trying to suppress the fit of cough.

“I will resist the disease unlike my family members who could not get treatment because of poverty, lack of awareness and fear of hospitals. I am sure God will bless us in this crisis.”

He has seen four family members suffer and die of TB in front of his eyes, and he knows well the symptoms.

Javed said he with Wajid had visited the Allied Hospital to get their examination as he felt the symptoms that their parents and brothers had faced prior to their deaths.

“Now, biopsy has confirmed that I’m suffering from the TB and need a proper treatment,” he said.

The treatment of the disease is a big issue for the duo who struggle to get two meals every day.

They buy meals from a nearby hotel as there is no woman in their house to cook food. Their younger sister lives with some relatives in the neighborhood as jobless brothers cannot feed her.

When Sajid, the elder brother of Javed, and the latest casualty to TB, died of the disease four years ago, it panicked the area people who informed the media and the district administration.

Javed said then district coordination officer (DCO) Nasim Sadiq visited their house and pledged to help the family.

The pledge was never realised into action.

Poverty, lack of awareness, disease and death did not give Javed and Wajid much time to think about getting computerised national identity cards (CNICs). During job search, they came to know that a CNIC was prerequisite to get a better job.

To get their CNICs, the brothers needed death certificates of their parents.

“The union council secretary issued a fake death certificate to us after receiving Rs1,500 as bribe,” he said.

DCO Noorul Amen Mengal took the notice of fake certificates and suspended the secretary.

The brothers had to pardon the secretary as he threatened them with consequences. Now the secretery is back to the seat, but the brothers never got CNICs because of lack of certificates.

Dr Muhammad Irfan, assistant professor of medicine and gastroenterology of the Allied Hospital, told Dawn Javed was suffering from low grade fever, weight loss and multiple swelling on left side of neck.

Lymph node biopsy confirmed caseating-granulamo, he added.

The World Health Organization says TB is one of the major public health problems in Pakistan ranking fifth amongst TB high-burden countries worldwide.

“Approximately 420,000 new TB cases emerge every year and half of these are sputum smear positive. Pakistan is also estimated to have the fourth highest prevalence of multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) globally”, it says.

At present Sajid needs financial help and government-funded treatment to defeat the disease.

Published in Dawn, January 3rd, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play