USAID kept them alive - then Trump's cuts came

BBC | When Kajol contracted tuberculosis in January, USAID kept her alive. Now she and her family are in danger again after the Trump administration ordered most US aid spending to end.

TB can be fatal if left untreated. The highly contagious bacterial disease, which usually infects the lungs, is not prevalent in rich countries, because treatment is relatively cheap. But in Bangladesh, it is a scourge.

That's especially so in neighbourhoods such as Mohammadpur, a slum in the capital Dhaka where Kajol,17, lives.

"We are poor people," she says. She is the sole breadwinner for herself, her mother and little brother. Her job in a garment factory keeps them all afloat.

So when she fell ill in January, it could have been catastrophic.

Instead, help arrived through Dipa Halder. For the last three years, she has been canvassing the residents of Mohammadpur about TB and getting people the treatment they so desperately need, free of cost.

The initiative is run by a local aid organisation, Nari Maitree. It was funded by the US Agency for International Aid (USAID) until February, when it received a letter from the US government saying the funds had been terminated.

That brought Kajol's treatment, only partially completed, to an abrupt end.

"Now I have to go get the medicine myself," she says. "I am struggling a lot."

Cutting off medicines mid-treatment makes the chances of TB becoming drug-resistant much greater. It makes the disease much more difficult to combat and puts patients at greater risk of severe illness and death.

"The people here are quite vulnerable," says Dipa, 21. "I can tell them to go to a particular doctor, which would help them save some money.

"Or I try to provide them with some financial assistance from our organisation so that they can continue their treatment."