Valera 15 years old, Minsk, MDR-TB patient in the children’s department of the Republican Scientific and Practical Centre for Pulmonology and TB, Minsk, Belarus

TB happened in our family. I have an elder brother and 3 sisters (26, 23 and 18 years old). My mother died of TB in 2010, and TB was also found in all of my three sisters. They have already been cured and they come to visit me at the hospital.

I remember that I fell at school while playing and had some chest pain. After a while, they made an X-ray and discovered that I had TB. I could not remember ever coughing, yet TB was found in my sputum. Now I feel very well. I have received 8 tablets per day for a year and will finish treatment in 3 months or so. For a while I had a pain in my knee because of the drugs, but it has now disappeared. We had a teacher coming to the hospital to help us keep up with the school programme. I am looking forward to getting cured and going home.