In KwaZulu Natal in South Africa, an outbreak of XDR-TB killed 52 out of 53 people within three weeks, most of whom were HIV positive.

This makes him a skilled negotiator and peacemaker, as he showed when he intervened in the early 1990s in KwaZulu Natal, then on the brink of civil war.

Jerome Singh at the University of KwaZulu-Natal says many patients with TB that is resistant to a few drugs opt to stay at home instead of getting treated at hospitals.