No matter how much money the government spends on fighting tuberculosis, it all comes to nought if patients don't complete treatment. And yet, as many as 3,272 patients have quit treatment at the Sewri TB hospital in the past five years, after losing hope in the long and lonely battle against the disease.

There's a simple solution: counselling. But, shockingly, the hospital does not have a single full-time psychiatrist in service. A mid-day investigation under the Right To Information (RTI) Act revealed that as many as 3,272 tuberculosis patients have taken discharge against medical advice (DAMA) from the Sewri TB hospital since 2013. Patients can have to spend anywhere between a few months to six or seven years in hospital, depending on the severity of the case, and much of this time is spent in isolation, as the disease is highly communicable. When these depressed patients choose to quit treatment and go home, they not only risk developing drug-resistant TB, but could also expose their loved ones and others to infection.