Syed Akbar, local tailor and DOT providor:

Syed Akbar is a remarkable man.  As well as being the local tailor he is also a DOT provider with 16 patients (10 males, 4 female, 2 children) in a radius of half a kilometre.  He performs the role solely out of social commitment, as he has never had TB himself. He has been a DOT provider for 8 years and in that time he estimates that he has helped 60-70 patients complete their treatment, with only 2-3 defaulting in that time.

His clients visit him at 7 am on the prescribed days so he can note and record their treatment. If they fail to show up he’ll try and track them down: if there is no success he reports the incident to the TB Health Visitor. He is also strongly involved in educating his community about the risks of TB by giving talks and making house calls - he does not restrict himself to purely being a treatment provider. This attitude is one of the main reasons why stigma is gradually being reduced in this area and issues like TB are now being more openly discussed.

Read about Sultana, one of Syed's patients