Ukraine has the second-highest rate of tuberculosis (TB) in Europe after Russia. It records about 100 new cases per 100,000 people every year. Thirty Ukrainians die of the disease every day. The country also has alarming rates of new HIV infections. Both problems are exacerbated by poor infection control in prisons and hospitals, primitive treatment for drug addicts, irregular access to TB medications, misdiagnosis, poor adherence to treatment programs, and a general lack of government concern. Ukrainian photographer Maxim Dondyuk began photographing the faces of Ukraine’s TB epidemic over two years starting in December 2010. During a hospital visit in the eastern Donbas region, Dondyuk photographed a naked man, staring at the ceiling and dying of gastrointestinal tuberculosis. A week later, Dondyuk was with the man when he died. These are the stories of some of the other victims Dondyuk has met and photographed.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: The faces of tuberculosis
Patients receive treatment for tuberculosis at a health facility in Ukraine. The country has the second-highest rate of tuberculosis in Europe after Russia. It records about 100 new cases per 100,000 people every year.
