TB survivors and affected communities are playing a vital role in India’s response to TB. TB survivors are best placed to understand the struggles of people with TB and their families and can play a significant role in complementing the interventions of the health system. In this issue, we are proud to feature profiles of TB survivor-Champions, from different backgrounds, with one thing in common - their courage to defeat TB and their determination to now play an active role in ending TB in India.

B Chinmayee is a classical Indian dancer from Odisha. After she was diagnosed with TB in 2017, about of TB meningitis left her paralyzed in a hospital, and she subsequently suffered a miscarriage.

Tupeshwari prefers to keep to herself, but she is hard to miss. She has strong convictions and stands by them. Tupeshwari is the president of a local political party in Dumri block and is active in community work. She is the mother of two children who are 20 and 18 years old. Her husband runs a furniture business in Goa.

Upendra Kumar is a tuberculosis survivor and Champion from Garhwa District in Jharkhand. In 2015, Upendra first developed symptoms of TB. He faced a lot of stigma and discrimination from his family and neighbours and tried to keep his TB diagnosis a secret. “I remember – I had been coughing for some time, and I thought it was a normal cough,” he recollects. Although his health didn’t improve, he did not tell his family as he thought they would get worried. Upendra happened to meet a health worker in the neighbourhood, and they discussed his condition. On the health worker’s advice, he went to the Primary Health Centre (PHC) in Ramna, where he was eventually diagnosed with TB.

Poonam is chirpy and charming with childish innocence. Unfortunately, in 2014, Poonam was diagnosed with TB and then almost a year later with MDR-TB.

MBA professional and TB survivor-Champion Abhishek Kumar hails from Vaishali in Bihar. He is an entrepreneur who runs a mobile and online ticketing shop with his father in his village. He was diagnosed with MDR-TB in 2014 when he was working as a banquet sales executive at a hotel in Bangalore. During a regular check-up, a chest X-Ray detected an infection in the lungs, and he was subsequently diagnosed with TB. He returned home and approached a doctor at a private hospital, who started him on treatment.