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

by John Green

Cancer care even within the U.S. remains wildly inequitable and littered with all manner of price gouging, but no one questioned whether treating my brother’s lymphoma was “cost-effective,” even though it cost a hundred times more than it would’ve to cure Henry’s tuberculosis. My brother is my oldest friend, my closest collaborator, and his work has been transformative in many lives. I would never accept a world where Hank might be told, “I’m sorry, but while your cancer has a 92 percent cure rate when treated properly, there just aren’t adequate resources in the world to make that treatment available to you.” That world would be so obviously and unacceptably unjust. So how can I live in a world where Henry and his family are told that? How can I accept a world where over a million people will die this year for want of a cure that has existed for nearly a century?