everyone emphasized the cost of treating drug-resistant tuberculosis, but “failure to diagnose and treat MDR-TB is what is really costly.” Every uncured case of MDR-TB was an opportunity for the disease to spread further and to develop further resistance, an opportunity for the disease to cause yet more suffering. And failing to invest public money in MDR-TB treatment didn’t keep people from seeking it on their own. Often, desperate families would mortgage their homes or sell their belongings to buy second-line antibiotics from private doctors, but then those families often couldn’t afford
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