Looking Back, Moving Forward

This video from Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s show Vital Signs highlights the well-known work of Partners In Health in Lima, Peru fighting drug-resistant tuberculosis. Key quotation:

Here in Peru, we were able to cure 60% of patients with extremely drug resistant tuberculosis. Even in the U.S. cure rates are well under 50%.

The video then goes on to highlight,  through the photogrpahy of James Nachtwey, the current reality for millions of people who lack access to the type of treatment PIH has provided. He says:

TB is preventable. It’s treatable and it’s curable. The drugs are available. The means of diagnosis are available. What’s needed most is organization and political will.

James Nachtwey-Zimbabwe, 2000 - In a tuberculosis ward where the great majority of the patients suffer from AIDS.

Well over 1 million people die unnecessarily from TB each year.  Looking back should remind us that the successes in treating this disease have been great; moving forward means reminding ourselves that the duty we share in continuing this work is even greater.