By Zayamu Hassan
A Tuberculosis (TB) survivor, Mrs Tope Adams, said in her battle to get cured of TB, she took over 500 injections and an estimated 5000 drugs in a space of six to seven years (2004-2011).
She disclosed this at a workshop on Drug-Resistant TB (DR-TB) organised by the National TB and Leprosy Control Programme (NTBLCP) in partnership with the Stop TB Partnership Nigeria and the Treatment Action Group (TAG) New York, in Abuja.
According to her, three things that helped her win the battle; include good food, rest and the right drugs.
She said her battle with the TB started sometimes in 2004 when she discovered that she was coughing for a long time.
She explained that the battle to get cured of TB got to its climax when she got a bed space at the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, Oyo State.
She insisted that TB is preventable and curable when the right channeled are followed.
“In March 2004, I started feeling ill, I went home for something, when I was coming back from a journey, and I discovered that I was coughing all the way from Ibadan to Akure.
“I didn’t think it was anything serious and I went to the local drug store and took all kinds of medicine. After the semester I went back home, got to the hospital and I was asked to carry out some test and TB was confirmed and the doctor said the treatment was six months and I needed to take the drugs-about four kinds of drugs then.
“I did that from August till March. You know when you are in school; you don’t feed well, lecturers and all that. I wasn’t religious on taking the drugs and there was a relapse and that was what brought me to Jericho Health Centre in Ibadan in 2004.
“There I faced stigma and I was referred to the closest Dot Centre around me. I did that for 8 months. It was that time I went for service in 2008. I took injection for two months and 8 months continuation phase but towards the end of the eight months, it still came out positive.
“I kept moving from a Dot Centre, private clinic like that because they kept telling me that these drugs are not working and that they can’t keep giving me what is not working. But I kept taking it having faith that one of them is working for me. And the public centres refused to give me the drugs; I then go to private centres,” Mrs Adams recalled.
While noting that at a point, there was no money to buy drugs which led to her family to sell their property in order the raise the money, Mrs Adams said: “We needed money to get these drugs and since my father had passed on, we had to sell our land worth over 4 million naira around 2008.
She added that it got much worse in 2009, after she started coughing out blood and went back to see her doctor at the UCH who advised that her sample to be sent to the Zankli Hospital in Abuja, which the result also came out positive.
“In June 2010, I went back to UCH and told them to still give me the drug that I am sure that something in one of the drugs is working for me. The doctor started giving me the drugs again.
“In July 2, 2010, I went back to the hospital again and they told me that there is a space for me in one of the Centres at the UCH and they told me to come the next Monday for admission.
“I did not need any body to encourage me. I went home, packed my clothes as if I was travelling and went to hospital to go and stay for the next six months. Then, I was already slim. I was weighing 40kg by the time I got to the hospital. I was desperate to get well. I took the injection for seven months. They told me that the treatment will be for 24 months.
“In July 2010, I started the drugs. Those who know the drugs know that it is not a joke. The injection is very painful and you have to take it every day.
“Since I had been going in and out of Dot centres, I had taken so many injections already. If I am to calculate the injections I took, they will be up over 500 and the drugs will be like 5000.
“So, going forward, I started seeing improvement. The first week, I gained three kilograms and it went on and on.
“When I was leaving the hospital to go home and continue with the outpatient treatment, I was weighing 62kg. People thought I travelled out of the country.
“I am grateful because as soon I completed the drugs, I was made to understand that the drugs are toxic.”
She applauded the Nigeria TB programme and all stakeholders and called on them to do more at the community level in the area awareness creation.
She advised the stakeholders to go to churches and mosques and relate the message about the dangers of TB, reiterating that “Treatment and follow up too is very important.”
