SHORT TUBERCULOSIS PORTRAIT

Bella (30) thinks that she might have contracted tuberculosis from people spitting on the ground and coughing in the overcrowded buses. She has been in hospital for 7 days now. After a week of medication the worst of the symptoms have subsided and she feels a little better. Bella caught ordinary tuberculosis six months ago, but didn't follow the treatment properly, and developed the multi-drug resistant form as a result. She now shares a room with two other women on the TB ward at the university hospital in Ibadan, and is determined to follow the treatment properly this time, and recover for good.