Everything is Tuberculosis

I just¹ finished reading Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green. It is a book about why, and how, a curable, infectious disease, is also still the world’s deadliest.

I won’t spoil anything here, but Everything is Tuberculosis is heartbreaking, compelling, and pointedly exposes the corporate greed that actively kills the poor and vulnerable around the world. It does indeed point out that curing everyone afflicted with TB is a complicated challenge, and that medicine availability is only one such issue that needs to be solved. However, none of the problems are unsolvable, and it is only active choices made by those with the power to solve these problems that has created the moment in time so many find themselves in; with an available cure, and no means (be it transportation, money, or cultural barriers) to receive it.

These facts are interwoven with the story of a young man named Henry, a TB patient in Sierra Leone. Henry exemplifies so many of these barriers and his story puts a face to a lot of statistics. His story is compelling, heartbreaking, joyful, and so much more.