Own Bottle

 Written by: Nasratullah Samim

Lailoma was a girl living in a green village far from the city. Her only friend was her classmate, Wazhma.

Lailoma was always coughing in the class but no one was paying attention to her health. One day her health condition got worse and she was complaining from throat sore and fever too.

Wazhma shared the issue of Lailoma’s sickness with the school administration. The administration informed Lailoma’s father and he took her to the clinic. The doctor checked her blood and he diagnosed that Lailoma was infected with tuberculosis bacteria.

Lailoma’s father worried and said that no one in his family has a history of TB and he asked the reason for her sickness from the doctor. The doctor replied that Lailoma had gotten this disease from someone else.

Meanwhile, Lailoma remembered one of her classmates, Sharifa.

Lailoma said to the doctor, “Sharifa was always coughing and she was getting weak day by day. One day, in the break time, I was sitting under a tree in the schoolyard with Sharifa. Sharifa drank water from a bottle and I also asked her to give me some water from the bottle but Sharifa denied. I grabbed the bottle from her hand and drank water and after that day, Sharifa’s family shifted to another village and she changed her school too.”

The doctor said that the reason of her TB disease is found then. He added that Sharifa had TB and TB is a contagious disease that transfers from one person to another through the air by coughing; eating food together in one plate and using a glass or water bottle together.

The doctor prescribed her 6 months medication and informed her to be away from other people.

When Lailoma got her heath again, she wanted her classmates to have their water bottles or glasses, and she aware of them from the danger of tuberculosis.