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My Tuberculosis Reading List

2023-03-28 · review / recommendation · John · 4:00 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Global development (also: Books & writing) · mode: Advice & reviews · tags: heavy topic, fundraising ask, civic or action cta

After reading over 20 books on tuberculosis, John recommends three TB reads (Handaa Enkh-Amgalan's memoir Stigmatized, Vidya Krishnan's Phantom Plague with Shreya Tripathi's story, and Paul Farmer's paper on the new tuberculosis) and argues TB persists because of poverty and unequal investment, asking viewers to vote, raise awareness and donate.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — John's TB reading so far and the historical trivia people like

  • ★★ John says he has been reading a lot about tuberculosis lately: many journal articles and over 20 books. — 00:00:00 · tuberculosis
  • ★★ John notes the historical facts people like most: TB gave us the cowboy hat, the stethoscope and Pasadena, California. — 00:00:00 · tuberculosis

00:00:29 — Stigmatized, a contemporary Mongolian memoir of TB and stigma

  • ★★ John begins with a contemporary first-person account because TB is not exclusively or even primarily historical. — 00:00:29 · tuberculosis
  • ★★★ John recommends Stigmatized by Handaa Enkh-Amgalan, a memoir of a young woman from a poor Mongolian community whose TB diagnosis brings dehumanization and stigmatization; he loved it. — 00:00:29 · tuberculosis

00:00:58 — Phantom Plague by Vidya Krishnan and the story of Shreya Tripathi

  • ★★★ John recommends Phantom Plague by Vidya Krishnan, probably his favorite TB history: approachable and readable yet rigorously researched. (hedged) — 00:00:58
  • ★★ John says he learned from Phantom Plague that Arthur Conan Doyle took part in TB research and that TB shaped ideas of vampires. — 00:00:58 · tuberculosis
  • ★★★ John recounts Shreya Tripathi's story: a teenager with multidrug-resistant TB who had to sue her government for treatment, won too late and died of TB at 19. — 00:01:27 · tuberculosis
  • ★★ John recently learned Shreya was a big fan of The Fault in Our Stars and reread it near the end of her life; he wishes he had met her and calls her one of his heroes. — 00:01:27 · The Fault in Our Stars

00:01:56 — Paul Farmer's paper on TB and social conditions; the story of Robert David

  • ★★★ John recommends a paper by another of his heroes, Paul Farmer: Social Scientists and the New Tuberculosis. — 00:01:56
  • ★★★ Paul Farmer (quoted): Farmer argues tuberculosis cannot be separated from the social conditions that lead to it, such as poverty, malnutrition and overcrowded housing. — 00:01:56 · tuberculosis
  • ★★ Retelling Farmer's case, John says Haitian teenager Robert David, whose clinic lacked the right drugs, developed drug resistance, sought treatment for nine years and died of TB. — 00:02:26
  • ★★★ John asks whether Robert David really died of TB or of poverty and systems that do not act as if all human lives are equally valuable. — 00:02:26 · health equity

00:02:55 — The paywalled paper, the gap in TB drug development, and asks to vote, raise awareness and donate

  • ★★ John calls academic publishing so labyrinthine that he could not access Farmer's paper without paying $42, which he finds a little absurd. — 00:02:55
  • ★ John hopes someone in the comments can help viewers find a way to read the paper. (hedged) — 00:02:55
  • ★★★ John says we tend to solve the problems we devote resources to. — 00:02:55
  • ★★★ John says many TB drugs were synthesized between 1950 and 1961, but none was developed between 1961, around when TB stopped being a problem in rich countries, and 2012. — 00:03:24 · tuberculosis, health equity
  • ★★★ John asks viewers to vote with global health in mind and to work to increase awareness of this profound injustice. — 00:03:24 · global health, tuberculosis
  • ★★★ John asks viewers who can to donate to Partners In Health or other organizations working to make TB history. — 00:03:24 · Partners In Health, tuberculosis

In the description and comments

  • ★ In a comment reply, John says making himself proximal to suffering, though uncomfortable, helps his anxiety in the long run. — creator comment
  • ★ Replying to a viewer hoping he feels better, John says he is massively better after injections, maybe not a permanent solution but a good one. — creator comment

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Phantom Plague · Shreya Tripathi · Social Scientists and the New Tuberculosis · Stigmatized · tuberculosis

Also: People: Arthur Conan Doyle · Robert David

Works: The Fault in Our Stars

Organizations: Partners In Health

Concepts: antimicrobial resistance · global health · health equity · malnutrition · paywall · social stigma

Places: Haiti · Mongolia · Pasadena

Myths: vampire

Only in the description or credits: Handaa Enkh-Amgalan · Paul Farmer · Vidya Krishnan

Also centred on Shreya Tripathi: John Goes ... to the UNITED NATIONS?

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