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Every second someone in the world gets infected with the bacterium that causes tuberculosis. One third of the world’s population, around 2 billion people, already has this TB bacterium in their body.

Not everybody gets sick. Most people develop a latent or ‘sleeping’ infection, which is not contagious but can still develop into TB disease later in life.

Those people who do develop tuberculosis face an exhausting disease. Treatment takes months and in many countries people with TB face a huge social stigma. The disease often leads to loss of income and isolation.

Here are some personal stories of people who have or had tuberculosis and links to articles dealing with topics such as stigmatization:

Michael caught tuberculosis in Thailand. "I did get the BCG vaccination against tuberculosis when I was a baby. But according to my doctor, it had no longer any effect," he tells TBVI.

Fiona Johnson (30) from London suffered from TB. “I thought I was one of the generation that never had TB, that it was a disease that had vanished. I now know very differently,” she told The Times.

50-year-old Vladimir has extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis. "I suppose I'll never run a marathon now," he says in an article by the EUobserver, "I just wish I could at least walk a few metres without losing my breath."

"The kind of discrimination I faced from my neighbours made me regret [sharing] my condition with them; I could not even share the [communal] sink," narates a woman in a PlusNews article about stigma in Kenya.

"How do you keep going when you're afraid to hug and kiss your own children because you could infect them?" TB-patient Suren Arakelyan (42) says in an article on tuberculosis in Armenia in The Age.

In countries like Pakistan, social stigma is depriving women of TB treatment. "I had coughs, mild chest pains and evening fever, but my in-laws didn’t allow me to go to a hospital," recalls Amina Batool in an IPS article.

Gerry Elsdon was at the height of her professional career as a popular TV personality in South Africa when she was diagnosed with tuberculosis. She now serves as an advocate, a voice and face for TB, read and see what she has to say in this UNAIDS article and video.

Australian Christiaan Van Vuuren (27) had awakened in a cold sweat and felt a bit feverish, but chalked it up to a bit too much socializing. While in quarantine, he became a bit of a YouTube celebrity, writes The Washington Post.

Mohini Bai died of drug resistant tuberculosis. She had lost her husband to AIDS and both she and her younger son had also tested positive for HIV. A few years back she first contracted TB, according to her story retold in a Stop TB Partnership blog.