India Shows That Developing a Coronavirus Treatment Isn’t Enough

MUMBAI—Debshree Lokhande recalls trying everything to get rid of her cough, including syrups, lozenges, tablets, and Ayurvedic remedies. She had just moved to a new city and started her first job, fresh out of university. But within days, she said she was vomiting up “bowlfuls” of blood, her weight was falling sharply, and she was experiencing night sweats. A chest X-ray soon revealed that she had contracted tuberculosis. In normal circumstances, TB is a treatable disease—you just need the right doctor to administer the right combination of drugs. Back then, in 2011, Lokhande would have neither.

For three years, she was prescribed varying cocktails of medicine, the combination changing every few months when the previous one didn’t work. Lokhande calls that period the years of loss—treatment did not cure her, and she lost her job; she also lost so much weight that at one point she was wheelchair-bound; one of her prescribed medicines led to a loss of hearing; she lost a lung. She lost, too, the life she had wanted for not just herself but her family—Lokhande’s doctor had not informed her and her relatives of the precautions required when living with a