Summary

Dr. Girum Tefera, for whom Chapter 15 is named, arrives at Lakka Hospital a few months after Henry. He immediately starts focusing on Henry's case. Dr. Girum is from Ethiopia, where he saw how effective anti-TB drugs can be, and how ineffective the testing methods used in much of Africa are compared to the ones used in the U.S. Many poorer countries focus on smear tests and treatment with a standard combination of strong antibiotics with significant side effects, which is the cheapest way to go, and effective in about 90 percent of cases, but can have devastating consequences for people with DRTB, like Henry. Though cheaper in the short term, this method costs the global economy in terms of new cases of DR-TB and MDR-TB and wages lost by people undergoing lengthy treatment and recovery. And, of course, there are human costs...