Monica Shandal’s Story

In 2020, at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, I was working in Malawi as an impact evaluation practitioner when I fell sick – I lost my voice and became extremely lethargic. Considering all that was going on at the time, including border closures and being in a new country alone, I assumed it was stress and carried on with my life.  After returning home to Canada, I felt much better and did not think about this situation again. 

 In May 2021, I had recently been admitted into a PhD program and needed to complete a TB skin test due to my travel history. I complied with the test and saw it just as a checkmark on a piece of paper, only to learn that it was much more complicated. I was asked to do an x-ray. The next day, I woke up to a phone call that said I might have TB. The months that followed were full of blood tests, bronchoscopies, and x-rays. In July 2021, I was diagnosed with subclinical pulmonary TB. 

 Even in a country with ample resources, like Canada, there are many barriers to care. I was fortunate in that I had access to a TB clinic. My biggest challenge was finding communities in Canada that understood my journey. I hope to use my experience as a survivor and an advocate for good and to help with awareness and access to care for TB. As a PhD student in development economics, I am currently exploring ways to study behavioural patterns in decision-making as it pertains to compliance and access.