Tuberculosis (TB), as a Lancet editorial once put it, is an “unsexy” disease. No one dies of it in a matter of days. It’s not highly contagious. It does not come with rashes, haemorrhage, or other dramatic symptoms. And it has been around for so long.

Even with advancements to its treatment, tuberculosis continues to claim the lives of so many Filipinos. But as one doctor points out, there are a lot of factors that need to be addressed beyond technological limitations: public and private dissonance, faulty medical practices, and widespread stigma.