Aftab Ansari left his village in northern India to work as a diamond cutter in Mumbai. But his dreams for a better life for his family suffered a blow when he got drug-resistant tuberculosis. Too weak to work, Aftab was forced to spend his savings, sell his wife’s jewellery and withdraw his children from school to buy food and pay the rent on his two-room cinder block home. He grieved to see his children, 6 and 8, go to bed hungry some nights. To pay bills he took out loans, and sank $US 2,000 into debt, equivalent to ten months' salary. Aftab, 32, is today back at work and paying his debts after completing the treatment that cured his TB. Infectious diseases like TB put an enormous burden on households worldwide, particularly in lower-income countries, draining billions in medical costs and lost productivity.