Epidemic:
TB in the global community

With an estimated 1/3 of the world's population infected, TB is a disease that has serious social and economic consequences, whose effects reach beyond the individual patients who have it to burden and handicap the families, communities and countries where it is found.

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Mumbai, India - FEBRUARY 8: Crowded apartment buildings on February 8, 2010 in Mumbai, India. Overcrowding is major popular in urban areas, as it is often associated with risks, like poor nutrition and hygiene. The elevators in these buildings usually are not maintained and do not work, making it difficult for very sick or elderly patients to get up and down the stairs to go to the health clinics and get their medicines.
Mumbai, India - FEBRUARY 5: Rhemat Shek is lies on the floor of her mother's home on February 5, 2010 in Mumbai, India. Her son, Sana Jameer, and mother, Husna Bano, sit behind her. Rhemat and her husband came to Mumbai to be closer to a DOTs center so she could receive medicine, but they say they may soon return home, interrupting Rhemat's treatment, so her husband can continue to work. She is currently so weak that she is often unable to sit up for more than 10 minutes at a time.
Balti, Moldova - AUGUST 20, 2010: Dumitru Stupalov lies in his casket during a wake on August 20, 2010 in Balti, Moldova. Stupalov was an ex-prisoner who died of MDR-TB. His mother, Evgenia Stupalov, stands over his body at a wake.
Mumbai, India - FEBRUARY 22: A patient draws the portrait of a nurse's daughter at the Group of TB Hospitals on February 22, 2010 in Mumbai, India.
Khumbizile Nkisimane was released from his job at a gold mine after 19 years when a medical exam revealed he had TB and HIV. He is currently unemployed and tries to support his wife and children by working a small plot of land outside of their home in Mnceba.
Mumbai, India - FEBRUARY 21: A doctor checks on a patient at the Group of TB Hospitals on February 21, 2010 in Mumbai, India.
Balti, Moldova - AUGUST 11: Angela Orlovsky lays in her bed in her home on August 11, 2010 in Balti, Moldova. Angela is coinfected with HIV andTB, is very weak and spends most of her time in bed.
Mumbai, India - FEBRUARY 16: Workers at a local garbage dump scavenge for trash that they can sell on February 16, 2010 in Mumbai, Indua. Local NGOs say that there is a huge problem with TB among the workers in the dumping ground, as well as the families that live near it, owing it poor nutrition and hygiene, which can make them more susceptible to developing active TB.
M.M.worked at a gold mine for 24 years before being released in 2008 when it was found he had TB and HIV. In South Africa TB is the biggest killer among people with HIV. Here, a priest prays for him to get better at the African Gospel Church in his hometown of Bakuba.
Miners pray for their safety before beginning a work shift 6500 feet underground at the Great Noligwa mine in Orkney, South Africa. The miners have historically had high rates of TB, due to poor screening and treatment programs, cramped living quarters and high rates of silicosis, an occupational lung disease that increase the likelihood of developing active TB. Miners have a disproportionately high rate of HIV, further complicating the issue.

David Rochkind

David studied sociology at the University of Michigan and moved to Venzuela in 2003 to begin working as a photographer. While coveri…

Topics
Health
Sub Topics
Epidemic Infectious Disease Tuberculosis
Regions
Worldwide
Tuberculosis

About Epidemic: TB in the global community

The statistics are alarming. In 2009, there were 9.4 million new cases of tuberculosis (TB) across the world and 1.7 million people died from the disease – one person every 20 seconds. The World Health Organization estimates that one third of the world’s population is infected with the microbe that causes TB, suggesting that there is no country in the world where TB does not exist, and that there is no population that is safe from the threat of the disease.

This project, EPIDEMIC: TB in the Global Community,shows that TB is a disease that has serious social and economic consequences, whose effects reach beyond the individual patients who have it to burden and handicap the families, communities and countries where it is found. It is part of a larger public health curriculum for high schools, universities and youth groups that takes a global perspective on what is truly a global problem.