In search of work, Aftab Ansari left his native village in the north of India for the sprawling metropolis of Mumbai, carrying with him hope for a better future for his wife and two children. He settled down and found a job in an old diamond cutting factory.
Then Aftab got sick. He was diagnosed with extensively drug-resistant TB, a strain of tuberculosis that is extremely difficult to treat. Unable to work, he began to run into debt and out of food. He recalls there were nights he put his children to bed on an empty stomach.
“Take your husband home”, the doctor told Aftab’s wife. “It’s not likely he will survive. No medicine can cure it.”
But Aftab didn’t lose hope. “If a person has courage or hope, he can do anything”, he says. Aftab underwent three years of grueling treatment. Against all odds, Aftab persisted, and in the end he fully recovered.
And then COVID-19 struck India. The country entered a prolonged lockdown, with movement restrictions imposed on all of the country's 1.3 billion people.
The diamond cutting factory where Aftab worked was shut down. Millions of people lost their livelihoods. Across the country, food insecurity rose dramatically, causing widespread malnutrition. Despite the strict measures put in place, the government struggled to contain the spread of COVID-19. India recorded nearly 100,000 daily cases a day in September of 2020. And by November, more than 120,000 people had died of the new virus.
“Everyone was scared and panicked. People of all ages were very frightened. People who were already TB patients also started getting scared. ” – Aftab Ansari
Until COVID-19, India, which accounts for 27% all new TB cases worldwide, had been making steady progress in the fight against TB. According to WHO’s Global tuberculosis report 2020, notifications of people newly diagnosed with TB rose from 1.2 million to 2.2 million between 2013 and 2019. But in the two months following the lockdown, case notifications dropped by more than 50%*.
People with TB who are not diagnosed and therefore don’t receive treatment can continue to spread the disease – resulting in more cases and deaths - especially in densely populated urban areas like Mumbai. Finding these “missing” cases is critical in winning the fight against this ancient disease.
Fortunately, by the time the new crisis hit India, Aftab had already found a new job and purpose: giving hope to others. He joined an army of health counsellors through Tata Institute of Social Sciences, who in collaboration with the government of India help patients undergo TB treatment.
Aftab spends his day calling patients and checking in on their health status. “For TB patients it’s very dangerous if they get coronavirus. So we ask them to get tested and to take their TB medicines regularly. If any patient stops taking their medicine we tell them that if they continue to do this, it could be fatal.”
In the end, Aftab believes he gained more than he lost. But his country could face a loss that may never be regained, as long as TB continues to hide in the shadow of the new pandemic.
This video is also available in French and Japanese.
*TB case notifications improved significantly since the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare started rolling out guidelines to state governments to close the TB diagnosis gap. But the backlog in case notifications from the lockdown period still remains.
© 2026 The Global Fund
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