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TB: The Other Global Epidemic
Kenya Looks to Fight TB, AIDS One Person at a Time
 Listen to Richard Harris' report: Part 1 | Part 2
 View a photo gallery of daily life at a TB clinic in Kenya.
Ambrose was taken to a hospital for pneumonia. He was unresponsive to treatment, so he was sent to a nearby clinic, where he was diagnosed with TB.
Photo: Richard Harris, NPR News
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Samuel Pilipili, standing in front of Mount Kilimanjaro, runs a TB clinic in Loitokitok, Kenya, where Ambrose is being treated.
Photo: Richard Harris, NPR News
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A Maasai woman awaits treatment outside of Pilipili's clinic.
Photo: Richard Harris, NPR News
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July 12, 2002 --
In Barcelona, Spain, thousands of doctors, researchers and activists gathered this week at the world's largest AIDS conference to discuss the global AIDS epidemic. But another epidemic of similar size is also sweeping the globe, tuberculosis. TB is an airborne disease and is easily spread. It kills 2 million people a year, and it's the leading cause of death among women of childbearing age.
In the past few years, there has been a major push to expand TB treatment around the world. The effort has a long way to go, but a strategy promoted by the World Health Organization (WHO) is working, even in the most challenging conditions.
In the first of a two-part series, NPR's Richard Harris traveled to one such place, a remote part of Kenya, where a man named Samuel Pilipili runs a clinic to treat the nomadic Maasai tribespeople.
When AIDS and TB Collide
Fighting the global TB epidemic is complicated by AIDS. The two diseases are now fueling each other. The HIV virus ravages the immune systems of those it infects, leaving the door open for TB. In turn, TB is a common killer of people with AIDS.
Because the diseases are intertwined, the WHO's effort to control TB is failing sub-Saharan Africa. In the Kenyan capital of Nairobi, for example, TB cases have increased seven-fold over the past decade. Today, there are more TB cases in Nairobi, with a population of 3 million, than in the entire United States. As Richard Harris reports from Nairobi, local health workers as well as international experts are trying to find new ways to fight both diseases simultaneously.
In Depth
Browse for more NPR stories on TB.
NPR coverage of the 2002 global AIDS conference.
Other Resources
• The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis & Malaria
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The World Health Organization
• The United States Agency for International Development TB Program
• Centers for Disease Control's Global AIDS Program
• Learn more about Maasai culture at Maasai-infoline.org.
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