Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection
by John Green
View on GoodreadsTuberculosis is curable, preventable, and still the deadliest infectious disease in the world. Green's phrase for that is "the world we are currently choosing." He braids the disease's history together with Henry Reider, a young patient he met in Sierra Leone, so you're looking at one person rather than a statistic.
Core ideas
- A human problem: TB persists because of how treatment gets distributed, not because we can't cure it.
- Meaning shapes outcomes: It went from a poet's romantic illness to a disease of poverty, and that shift changes who survives.
- One patient: Henry makes the scale legible, and it turns into concrete advocacy like the bedaquiline pricing fight.
Published2025
Pages208
ISBN9780525556572
ReadJun 2026
