Tuberculosis turns fatal for orphan youth

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Tuberculosis is no more a fatal disease. But if the affliction strikes a homeless orphan like 22-year-old Johnson, it could be. Johnson is now in Ward 9 of Chest Diseases Hospital, Pulayanarkotta. TB treatment is so advanced that the patient need not be confined in a hospital; just like in the case of diabetes a patient can take his daily dose of medicines at home and go about his daily routine.

However, such refinement in treatment has worked to Johnson’s disadvantage. His doctor feels Johnson will be better off away from the hospital. “He could easily contract infections from the other patients,” said Dr Bindu Joseph. Johnson is also epileptic, and constant use of medicines has dulled his immunity.

However, Johnson, till four years ago an inmate of Poojappura Children’s Home, does not have a home to return to. Ever since he stepped out of the Children’s Home, he has been sleeping on pavements, or on the stone steps of Napier Museum or in the Railway Station.

It was a Social Justice Department official, a caretaker named Santhosh, who stumbled upon him inside the Museum two weeks ago, shivering with high fever and huddled under half a shade on a rainy day. Johnson said that had he not been spotted by Santhosh he would have gone about his job of selling evening papers after “sleeping for a while”.

Santhosh, who was Johnson’s caretaker in Poojappura and now worked in the Children’s Home in Kollam, got him admitted to the District Hospital in Kollam. His sputum test revealed TB. Santhosh, with the help of top Social Justice officials, got Johnson transferred to Chest Diseases Hospital in Pulayanarkotta here five days ago.

Sisters of Malankara Catholic faith, after visiting him in the TB Centre, have agreed to take him into the TB Rehabilitation Centre they run near the Centre. But they can admit him only after his sputum test shows negative. Dr Bindu said that the test would be taken only after two months, at the end of the intensive phase (IP) treatment. Till then, Johnson has two choices: remain in the hospital and risk infection or walk out and be under the mercy of the elements.