By Michael Leppert
The Indiana Citizen
March 26, 2025
Henry Reider is a young man from Sierra Leone who recently and miraculously survived tuberculosis. Using the words “recently” and “miraculously” to describe his recovery from a disease that has had a preventive vaccine since 1921 and a cure since 1943 is reason enough to become obsessed with the question: why?
“Everything is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection” is not a book I would choose to read under normal circumstances. Outside of the medical community or those afflicted with it, who would? I am hopeful that, for starters, it will be read by the same people who put other John Green books on the bestseller lists. And then growing from that unusual initial gathering of readers, it reaches the souls of every individual who needs to read it.
Green met Reider and his mother several years ago on a trip to the west African nation, and the families have become friends. Green’s son, not to mention his famous brother, is also named Henry, which has led Reider to refer to both as the “namesakes,” in their regular calls since his recovery. All of the components of that recovery serve as the primary human story and the vehicle for the latest great book in Green’s library of greats.
Reider’s story is fascinating, especially when told by one of the great storytellers of our time. But the history and the evolution of responses to the infection is the real star here. From the now ridiculous sounding strategies and treatments of it, to the way cities and even states, like New Mexico, were developed in large part to combat the infection, are all expertly detailed. Even fashion trends would evolve and modify based on what can only today be seen as irrational theories on how infections function.
As Donna Edwards writes about the book for the Associated Press: “The text seamlessly moves through related topics, from TB’s effects on history and fashion to the socioeconomic inequities that perpetuate the disease, and even the romanticization of an illness that, for a period, was associated with soulful poets and delicate feminine beauty.”
TB killed 1.25 million people worldwide in 2023. That’s not a spike in the toll or some unpredictable phenomenon that no one in the medical community saw coming. It is a death number that was expected. According to Our World in Data, the projection has been unwavering since at least 1980, though it was elevated during the early years of the HIV/AIDS outbreak forty years ago, when it was common for 1.8 million deaths to occur annually.
Again, these deaths aren’t unpreventable. Quite the opposite. And that is what makes this history so unavoidably relevant today. Letting more than a million people die every year from an infection with a cure is disturbing.
In the final chapter of the book, Green tells a brief story of how he stepped on a nail that protruded through his shoe and punctured his foot an inch deep. He did all the things one would expect, driving to the doctor the next day for the expected care to avoid tetanus. As the entirety of the book explains in terms of TB, Green details all of the things that made his tetanus care possible, from the transportation system he used to get to the doctor to the distribution of the gloves used by the nurse who gave him the shot. It’s an intricate system of independent elements that all work to make the experience unremarkable here, as it is in all rich countries.
The experience inspired Green to ask TB doctor, KJ Sueng, how many people would die of tuberculosis if everyone could access good healthcare. After a moment of clarifying questions in response to the simple, original one, Sueng replied as I expected. “None. Zero. Zero people should die of TB.”
“Everything is Tuberculosis,” more than anything else to me, details how in the last century humans have let an obscene number of other humans die as a choice. These deaths are often labeled as the cost effective response to the infection, primarily because humanity doesn’t have an agreed upon valuation of life itself.
It’s hard to write about one’s favorite writer, even though I seem to try relatively often. Take his name off of this book, and I would have lived on without giving TB much thought. Shame on me for that.
Green’s closing to his latest book highlights the shame and responsibility we should all share: “We must also address the root cause of tuberculosis, which is injustice. In a world where everyone can eat and access healthcare and be treated humanely, tuberculosis has no chance. Ultimately, we are the cause. We must also be the cure.”
Michael Leppert is an author, educator and a communication consultant in Indianapolis. He writes about government, politics and culture at MichaelLeppert.com. The views and opinions expressed are those of the author only and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Indiana Citizen or any other affiliated organization.
