According to the WHO World Tuberculosis Report, 1.5 million people worldwide died of tuberculosis in 2020. It has been leading the list of the world's deadliest infectious diseases for years. A pandemic like the one we are currently experiencing with Covid-19 is excluded. Tuberculosis is a disease that affects the lungs and is caused by various mycobacteria. It is widespread not only in Africa, but also in many parts of Asia. Even though the disease is well treatable, most people in the affected areas lack the money for the necessary medications. To defeat the disease, different antibiotics would have to be taken without interruption over a period of six months.
We were made aware of the fate of a 6-year-old boy in Kabul by our friend Valy, who came to Germany in 2016 as an 18-year-old asylum seeker, but then spent 10 months unjustly in pre-trial detention and therefore withdrew in July 2019 after his acquittal due to this traumatic experience in his home country Afghanistan. As if the decades-long war and the Taliban takeover in the summer were not already a sufficiently tragic environment in which to spend one's childhood, Sediqullah was diagnosed with tuberculosis in September this year. Sediquallah's father, like many other family fathers in the country, lost his job this year. With difficulty and hardship, he can find enough money to bring food to the table for the family of four every day, although they often go to bed hungry. Money to buy fuel to heat the apartment is far too rare. However, winters in Kabul are often harsh and bitterly cold. All these conditions ensure that such a diagnosis is very likely to lead to death.
We are therefore more than happy through your donations to be able to pay Sediquallah for the tuberculosis treatment he desperately needs and with which he can hopefully be cured of this cruel disease. The treatment is usually divided into two three-month blocks, in each of which different types of antibiotics are administered. He has now completed the first three months of treatment. Unfortunately, the blood tests performed before the start of the second stage of treatment have revealed that there are still tuberculosis bacteria in his body. The reason for this setback is probably the lack of quality of the local antibiotics from Pakistan. In order to be able to achieve the desired result with a delay, we have now decided to import high-quality medicine from India. As a result, Sediquallah is now in the first phase of treatment for another month. Only when the results of the then carried out test show the desired results at the end of January can the second treatment block finally be started. We keep our fingers crossed and are very confident that it will work this time!! So far, we have spent 300 euros on the treatment.
