Image Courtesy of NPR.
I read an article this past weekend on NPR titled “Faces Of Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis” by Jason Beaubien. The article focused on lived realities of people with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) and other societal struggles they currently face. The article was quite informative and thought provoking, my takeaway from the reading was the underlying factor of poverty as the overarching factor of most health issues.
As an anthropologist interested in global health and development, it saddens me to see that multiple approaches to health often overlook the importance of addressing poverty. Providing hospitals and drugs are essential to solving health issues, however if the socio-economic statuses of care recipients are poor, health issues are far from being solved. In the article, the author stressed that MDR-TB tends to gravitate the poor since they don’t have the necessities to prevent the disease. By necessities, the author meant the people lacked access to employment, which tends to be a factor in the situated lives of individuals.
In thinking about people living with MDR-TB, their illness is often the focus of out thoughts. However, their redefined place within their societies due to the illness and how they internalize that change and experience are factors that require focus as well. Although a patient might be on medication for the illness, if s/he faces any social ostracism or other negative factors, I believe the health status of that person is greatly impacted.
Thus it is essential for health strategies and health workers to always look beyond immediate issues in order to uncover hidden factors that affect sustainable health. Additionally, I believe the article stressed the importance of adopting multiple perspectives such as that of social scientists in dealing with health issues.
NaNa Asare 