Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection

by John Green

“Nothing is so privileged as thinking history belongs to the past.”

Even as TB became curable, the cure often did not reach the places that needed it most. By 1980, the RIPE treatment protocol had been in use for decades in the U.S. and western Europe. Efforts at case-finding and prevention meant that rates of

A child born in Sierra Leone is over one hundred times as likely to die of tuberculosis than a child born in the United States. This difference, as Dr. Joia Mukherjee writes, is “not caused by genetics, biology, or culture. Health inequities are caused by poverty, racism, lack of medical care, and other social forces.”

Ultimately, what I needed was not just a tetanus shot but an entire set of robust systems to work perfectly in concert with each other—a phenomenon that ought not be a luxury in our world of abundance, and yet still somehow is.

We cannot address TB only with vaccines and medications. We cannot address it only with comprehensive STP programs. We must also address the root cause of tuberculosis, which is injustice. In a world where everyone can eat, and access healthcare, and be treated humanely, tuberculosis has no chance. Ultimately, we are the cause. We must also be the cure.

I think about Shreya Tripathi reading my book before I knew that TB was still a thing. I think, “What if I had used my megaphone better back then?” I think, “Am I using it correctly now?” I think about the caregivers and patients who don’t have megaphones, who often feel like they’re screaming into the void.