Rachel Feltman: For American scientific‘s Science quickly, I’m Rachel Feltman.
If you know John Green, you might be the best novelty of young adults Blame in our stars Or with the early YouTube Halcyon Days. But a few years ago John was obsessed with an amazing issue: tuberculosis.
His new book Everything is tuberculosis It comes out on March 18th. Today, tuberculosis has told how our world has formed, and why it is now the most infectious disease of our planet.
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Go, thank you for chatting today.
John Green: Oh, thank you for being me.
Feltman: Tell us your new book. I think your job is for some people who don’t know, it might be surprised to hear that you have been so interested in tuberculosis.
Green: Yes, it is certainly writing to young adult novels. I made tuberculosis in 2019 when I visited a TB hospital in Sierra Leone and met with Henry with a boy with a tuberculosis.
I started thinking about the disease through Henry’s friendship, somehow I started thinking about the way we distributed resources and technology in the last 75 years. Tuberculosis has been medicinal since the 1950s, but it is still our most infectious disease. And I think this is the accusation of the systems we have built to improve human health.
Feltman: Totally, so for the audience that can be surprised when hearing the most infectious disease, can you give us a sense of tuberculosis right now?
Green: Yes, it’s very amazing. I mean, when I found this I found this, I had no idea that tuberculosis was still a thing, and let’s not spend the next five years of my life.
But 10 million people get sick each year with tuberculosis. About a quarter of all living humans have been infected with TB, but most will never be sick; What we will be, sometimes what we call the latent tuberculosis. But about 10 million people are sick every year, of which 1.25 million dies …
Feltman: Hmm.
Green: It is particularly tragic and and unconnectable because tuberculosis has been medicinal for a long time. We know what to do. We know how this disease is treated. It is a bacterial infection; We have good antibiotics to fight. But we don’t do good work to get to where the cure needs.
Feltman: Yes, tell us more about the waking of your tuberculosis. How did you know about this infection?
Green: Well, I was in Sierra Leone there to learn the mother’s health system there. My wife and I have worked in Mother’s Health, to help members with their health organizations for a long time. The doctors were traveling on the last day if they were able to visit this TB hospital, because they were worried about a couple of patients, and we were sure. And I didn’t know that too were they were Still TB Hospitals. I thought, as a disease that killed TB, you know, XIX. Century British romantic poets, not the current phenomenon.
And when we arrived at this hospital, my son took me to my son, who took me to the hospital, who walked to the lab, and finally violated Henry, and told him that “Who is that child?” He had to be someone who works in the hospital. And one of the doctors said, “That’s really a patient, and it’s one of the most sick people.”
Feltman: Hmm.
Green: He realized that Henry had been resistant to drugs, and that he was doing well at the time, responding to drugs that were given his infections, they knew he did not respond well enough and they would return the infection. And the story of what happened to Henry in the next four years and what happened to me, I think, in the next four years, what really is Everything is tuberculosis He is trying to tell.
Feltman: Yes. So, throughout history, you know, when you started introducing the tuberculosis tension, what did you find the most?
Green: In the 16th century in England and the United States, the US was industrialized in the United States, which was dedicated to the world’s disease.
Along the way, my grandfather’s brother, my grandfather’s brother, died in 1930, when he worked in Lineman for Alabama’s power and light. I learned that TV formed our geography in the deep ways, founding cities like Colorado Springs and Pasadena, California. Changed the way of thinking of fashion. I, today I had a shaven face, now I dizzy, XX. At the beginning of the 19th century. When we realized TV by bacteria, we were concerned that all the male beard should have many bacteria, so it was this “riot rebellion”. Tb is everywhere.
Feltman: What do you expect from the readers to get rid of your book?
Green: I think the most important thing is to be aware of the TV crisis. It is a crisis being developed for decades and when the crisis spreads in slow movement we often do not pay much attention. But right now, especially the TB crisis is deep. People have interrupted the treatment of the treatment in recent weeks, and it is a variety of opportunities to develop resistance against them. It is a disease, which is much more likely that the disaster of society is likely to walk around the drug that is resistant to tuberculosis, allowing the disease. And potentially resistance to all existing tools to fight, it is really a horrible foresight, not only in poor communities but everywhere for all people.
So I hope, mostly they remove consciousness. But the most important thing for me is to resonate with Henry’s story. Statistics do a lot of work, and I know I’m in a science podcast, so I need to have statistics. But what he really moves us, I think that they are human stories.
Feltman: Hmm.
Green: Somehow it is different from the novels I write; Somehow, it is still the same because I am writing about children who love poetry and poetry and want to be a part of the world and cannot be found for diseases.
Feltman: Hmm.
Green: And that’s the story I shared generously with Henryk and his family, and so I hope most people move away from Henry’s care.
Feltman: And why is it that you think that tuberculosis is a medicinal time, because there has been so long, why don’t we fix this problem in a global way?
Green: Charles Dickens called TV “wealth never protected” disease …
Feltman: Hmm.
Green: Because anyone could get tuberculosis. The king died as a result of tuberculosis. That’s no longer. Now, it is a disease that affect those who live in crowded conditions. It is a disease that we closely associate with poverty. We don’t treat all human life as if they were equally valuable. We don’t live that all people have created the same. And that’s why we’re still tuberculosis.
It is not an easy healing disease, but, if you know, my brother Hodgkin Lymphoma had a couple of years ago. And in no way no one said, “Well, this is not a good use of resources to heal your hodgkin lymphoma,” even more than a hundred times more to heal my brother cancer than healing a patient with a patient. And yet, we hear all the time that it is not cost effective to treat some types of tuberculosis. Henry said it is not cost effective to treat the tension of its tuberculosis, but if I could get this specific tension of tuberculosis, I would take care of it without any problems.
Feltman: Yes, yes, and in our opinion, our listeners would agree that health care and treatment is important that it is important for its right. But, of course, recently reminded us that tuberculosis is still a problem in the US …
Green: Completely.
Feltman: Also. Are you amazed that the news comes out next to this book?
Green: No, I wasn’t surprised that Kansas had been a TV appearance. It is rare to promote a book in the US TV brush context (laughter) …
Feltman: Sure.
Green: But it wasn’t entirely unexpected. We have about 10,000 cases each year in the United States. The US hundred people die every year each year.
It is a disease everywhere. I mean, it is air disease; Anyone can get tuberculosis. If you are much less sick if you are well-fed and you, you don’t have other health problems, but anyone can get TB. And so anywhere is a threat to humans everywhere. And that’s really one of the messages I want to go home to the level of this book and also conversations with people like you.
Feltman: Thank you for coming. It’s been a great chat, and I’m sure our audience and the audience will like a lot Everything is tuberculosis.
Green: Thank you really appreciate the opportunity to be with you.
Feltman: That’s the episode of today. Don’t forget to see Everything is tuberculosis Where you get your books. Science quickly Rachel Feltman produces me with Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper, Naeem Amarsy and Jeff Delviscio. This passage edited by Alex Sugiura. Shayna Books and Aaron Shattuck Fact-Check our show. Our music topic was completed by Smith. Subscribe American scientific Update and deep science for more news.
For Scientific American, I’m Rachel Feltman. See next time!
