In Azuniyeh, Lebanon there’s a hospital for migrant women who are diagnosed with tuberculosis. Most of these women were dumped at the hospital by their employers and left without pay. The employers give the women’s passports to the agencies where they were hired and the agencies used those passports to contract the women to other potential Lebanese sponsors.

One woman, who chose to remain anonymous, has a frail body, her breathing is abnormal and she is too weak to even get out of bed. She says that her former employer found out that she was ill and took her to the agency who then took her to the hospital.

“My employer gave the agency my passport and now they are giving me two weeks to recover from tuberculosis because they say I have to report to my new employer,” she says “To ensure that my new employer is unaware of my illness the agency told me that I will not be able to continue medication once the new employment begins.”

According to the World Health Organization, cases like this woman who go untreated can infect on average 10 to 15 people a year.

More than two billion people or one-third of the world’s population is infected with tuberculosis. A total of 1.7 million people died from TB in 2009 (including 380,000 people with HIV), equal to about 4,700 deaths a day. TB is a disease of poverty, affecting mostly young adults in their most productive years. The vast majority of TB deaths are in the developing world, with more than half occurring in Asia.

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