Tuberculosis—while completely curable with antibiotics—requires a strict six-month drug regimen in order to cure the patient. The antibiotics are fairly inexpensive but not available in Afghanistan.

“When you think of health care in our country, and then witness a place where you only need $18 to pay for the drugs to save these people’s lives, that’s a real travesty,” Bock says.

Perhaps more seriously, drug-resistant forms of the disease can emerge from inconsistent treatment and cause untreatable outbreaks.

From Harvard to the Trenches

Heading into Afghanistan, Goldfeld had a battle plan similar to the one she used in her work in another war-torn country—Cambodia.

In the early 1990s, Goldfeld pioneered new ways of giving tuberculosis therapy to refugees on the border of Thailand and Cambodia.

Along with her Cambodian colleague Sok Thim, she founded the Cambodian Health Committee, a tuberculosis treatment program that has successfully cured over 3000 patients to date.

Goldfeld’s program relies on extensive family and community education on the spread and treatment of tuberculosis.

“The thing to remember is that tuberculosis is a curable disease, and we have to do everything we can to provide the medicine and supplies so people can survive,” Goldfeld says.

Each patient enlists a supporter, a friend or family member who agrees to supervise the six-month drug course. Patient, physician and supporter all sign a contract promising to follow the therapy.

“The lesson we learned in Cambodia is that anyone can complete the therapy with the right support,” she says.

Having succeeded in Cambodia, Goldfeld hopes to start a similar treatment program in Afghanistan.

“She’s a real leader not only in research and medicine, but in starting a program that is really a model for the world,” Bock says.

In fact, Bock described Goldfeld’s approach as the medical equivalent of microlending in third world countries.

“Microlending refuses to accept the classical economic assumption that poor people are bad creditors. Anne Goldfeld has refused to accept the classical medical assumption that poor people with tuberculosis should be quarantined and forgotten,” Bock says.