I love learning about the world around me, hearing of different cultures, nations, histories, and ideologies, travelling, documentaries, and cuisines. But one way of broadening perspective which is oftentimes ignored, is the study of disease. In fact, it’s quite shocking, the profound impact disease has had on human history, and life today. Disease has both marred and adorned the past, present, and future, with tuberculosis being one of the most influential. 

This past summer, I read Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green. It changed my worldview in unimaginable ways. I learned that Tuberculosis led to the founding of many American cities. I learned that tuberculosis led to some of today’s western beauty standards. I learned that up to one quarter of the world’s population is currently infected with the disease yet only ten percent will ever become ill with it. But my most important takeaway from this book was learning that tuberculosis is much more than the spread of bacteria, it is a disease of injustice. 

Here in the western world, in developed countries, we don’t think much about tuberculosis, which is exactly the point. John Green writes,  “When TB ceased to be a problem of rich people… it ceased to exist in the minds of many.” Tuberculosis is most common among places like south east Asia, sub-saharan Africa, or eastern Europe. Tuberculosis is not common among places like western Europe, the United States, or Canada. See, this disease is currently curable, and has been since the 1950s, but a country’s economics, along with pharmaceuticals economics, have determined its accessibility. The main issue is that hardly any new drugs were developed after the first set in the 1950s because once cases decreased in wealthier countries, research was no longer funded! This left entire regions of the world still suffering from tuberculosis. John Green quoted Peter Museveni saying, “Where are the drugs? The drugs are where the disease is not. And where is the disease? The disease is where the drugs are not.” This alone encapsulates the injustice that tuberculosis is. It is a curable disease that kills over a million people a year. John Green says that TB has killed “roughly as many people as World War l and World War ll combined” between the years of 1982 and 2005, where it was worsened by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. 

In my opinion, people wouldn’t be okay with these facts if it were another disease, especially one that is still prevalent in wealthier countries. In the U.S. it’s common to be vaccinated against widespread infectious diseases, and for others we donate money to help prevent their spread. Throughout my years in elementary and middle school, I remember having Purple Pinky Day to encourage people to donate a small amount to help eradicate Polio. All that was needed was a dollar. It cost a single U.S. dollar, to help eradicate a disease. Strangely enough, tuberculosis (when it’s not drug resistant) is relatively inexpensive to treat, on average costing just $24. Needless to say, the number of TB deaths each year is completely unwarranted and unacceptable in acknowledgement of these facts. 

John Green’s Everything is Tuberculosis taught me that as much as disease plays a role in human history, humans play a role in disease history too. We are the ones who decide to either look to a future where no one dies of a curable disease or one where we turn a blind eye and let the cycle continue. For a long time tuberculosis had more power than we did but now the power can shift if we so desire. I highly recommend reading Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green or watching his lecture about TB on Youtube to learn more.