Life Inside a Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis Unit in South Africa

About one-third of the world's population is currently infected with the tuberculosis bacterium, according to the World Health Organization - and one MSU student is doing something about it. Ana Maria Kelly, a doctoral student in the College of Nursing, recently traveled to South Africa to conduct research on multidrug-resistant tuberculosis and the psychiatric side effects of the drugs used to treat it. While treatment for regular TB takes about six months, treatment for MDR-TB takes two long years. For the first six months, patients have to be hospitalized at the Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis Unit to take treatment.