I started with tuberculosis symptoms 12 months before I was diagnosed. Night sweats and a cough were the first signs, then chest pain, fevers, sputum, weakness and weight loss. I had to go to my doctors on five occasions to be told that I had a chest infection, asthma and pleurisy. Eventually, a chest X-ray and blood were taken to discover it was tuberculosis (T.B.). By that time I was really ill and weak. I recall this as a nightmare. I then was taken to two drugs after a couple of months and my symptoms came back. I had to be isolated for nearly two months and given second-line drugs such as streptomycin injections. I had a six-drug therapy which made me feel sick all of the time. It was not nice. I panic every time I have an infection or a cough. I worry that it might be back to haunt me.

My husband has just been diagnosed with TB. He has been coughing for 4 years, each time he went to the doctor he just got antibiotics for URTI's or meds for hay fever. He also had the itchy spots on his shins, attributed to contact dermatitis. Tiredness was attributed to low thyroid. His arms, legs and buttocks are wasted, but his abdomen is distended. He had pain in his side, X-rays diagnosed nothing. They put the cough down to smoking. Last year he had a pneumothorax and was treated by a cardiothoracic surgeon and a pulmonologist and put on asthma pumps. More X-rays taken and shadow was seen - put down to smoking again and cancer suggested but he did not want to go in for exploratory surgery. Two more bouts of chest pain, more X-rays, another thoracic specialist, no result. Sputum test negative. COPD and emphysema attributed to smoking. 2 weeks ago, another pnemothorax, more X-rays, a CT scan, thoracotomy and biopsy and 6 days later TB was diagnosed. I don't understand why it has taken so long and so many tests to diagnose this - I have lost all faith in the medical profession and feel like we've been taken for a ride so they can milk our medical insurance.

I was doing my third year of BA, I started by coughing continuously and a flu like pneumonia for a long time. This moment nearly ruined my life. I started by using flu medication but it resisted to stop. I then went home for a visit to my aunt, who then suggested that I have to go and visit doctor for consultation. As I opened my mouth to explain my problem to the doctor, I started coughing, without hesitation the doctor then said TB. I nearly committed suicide after that, as I was under denial stage. The doctor then registered my name under TB program. Staying in the hospital for six months to me was a nightmare. I became more violent until I forced my doctor to release me from hospital by telling him lies that my lecture called me to write my exam papers. The doctor was under pressure he then released me to go and write with packets of medication and at the same time I was feeling cured. Then the first thing I started by quitting my medication and the diseases as it well known went into hiding for some time. A year later I started to feel very much week around June. I was unable to go upstairs in the library, at the same time coughing started, during nighttime my chest was wheezing. As a border in boy hostel guys organized during my sleeping time and they started pointing fingers me as if I was dying. I was under pressure then I went to the nearest hospital and I was admitted as a TB patient. Students from the University will come to watch me that I am dying and started to call me names and that I am having aids. I wanted to die by that time. At the same time I continued with my treatment for a year until the TB was cured.

During my second semester at the graduate school where I was taking my MBA, I started waking up in the middle of the night soaked in sweat. A week after I started to have a fever every afternoon and felt some pain in my back. Shortly after a few days my cough started, so I went to the doctor and he told me it was just a mild case of respiratory infection and he just gave me antibiotics. After a week with no visible improvements, I decided to go to a pulmonologist and he finds out from my chest x-ray that my right lungs is positive with fluid, so I had to undergo thoracentesis. Just after 2 days, the pleural fluid test result came out that I was positive with TB. It was so hard for me to accept that I had to stop studying for more than four months just to be sure that I won't be able to infect my friends and classmates. I hope it won't come back ever again.

After my dad got infected by the disease, I had to take his sputum to the labs, and I spilled in my pocket, a year later, I began feeling weak, lost my appetite, a dry cough, with blood stains at times. Went to see my doctor, had an X-ray and sputum test and it was positive. Then I went on treatment for six months.

My diagnosis rests on the sputum test. I have never been treated for TB but was surprised after my first bout with pneumonia. I thought they made a mistake, but no. The 1995 x-ray showed clear lungs so I knew I must have had it since coming to New Zealand. I have struggled with fatigue for years, but I go running 3 times a week and practice yoga once a week. They seem pretty casual about TB here in NZ, and while I wait for the results of the test. I have not been told to isolate myself in any way.