Meet patient Aik Jong
“In 2017 we were asked to leave our home by armed men. There was fighting close by. The soldiers pointed their guns at us, they kept accusing us of being members of another armed group. Along with our three children and most of our village, we were detained in a nearby monastery for five days. We didn’t have enough food or water and we weren’t allowed to take our ART drugs, which we’ve been receiving from MSF since 2013, because the soldiers wouldn’t let us touch our things. We tried to be smart and take drugs when we could, but we still missed doses. Our CD4 counts dropped very low, and that’s when we think we got MDR-TB. It was really crowded in the monastery, and it was tough for us – the soldiers kept asking where the armed men from the rival group were, and they tortured some people from our village. I had to repeatedly explain that I am a civilian.”