TB&Me: "This treatment programme is my last resort"

I woke up one night freezing cold but my temperature was 40 degrees Celsius.

I had a job working in a forest at the time. The days were long – I woke up early and worked all day.

I had been feeling weak and nauseous, but my symptoms seemed like a common flu. I got some medication from the pharmacy and my temperature went down again.

The dreaded diagnosis

But then the same thing happened again. I woke up in the night, cold but sweating. This time, the people I was living with called for an ambulance.

The doctor asked me whether I had been losing weight. He asked me about my relationship with alcohol and then he asked about my previous tuberculosis (TB) history.

I had never heard of MSF before but now I thank God for their programme in Zhytomyr as I have access to the drugs I need

I cannot describe how it felt to think that I might have TB again.

I had already experienced TB three times in my life while I was in prison but had been declared cured in May.

From bad to worse

Only a couple of months had passed and now an X-ray examination was revealing lots of cavities in my lungs. They said I should go to hospital immediately.

Later, doctors in Zhytomyr diagnosed me with drug-resistant TB (DR-TB).