But the lack of economic opportunity means that locals have little choice but to go into the plantations and forests for work.
“I only know how to do this kind of work, no other skills,” says Govindha, a 56-year-old plantation worker who fell into a week-long coma after contracting the disease. His wife, Lakshmi, was also hospitalized. “I thought we were both going to die,” she remembers. “I told my son to give our cows to someone else.” Despite the ordeal, the couple returned to work on the farm.
After Suresh passed away, Gayatri, now the family’s sole breadwinner, also felt compelled to return to collecting areca nuts on the farm. Still, she thinks it’s important to raise her awareness of the disease. If she had taken Thresh to the hospital immediately, she says he might still be alive.
“I had never heard of KFD,” she says. “Had we known, we might have acted sooner.”
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