A Brilliant Flash of Momentum Counters Apathy in Global Efforts to Stop Tuberculosis

You’re not alone if you only associate tuberculosis with Victorian novels (consumption) or a routine, pre-employment skin test for school bus drivers, home health aids and others in proximity to vulnerable populations. It is still the world’s top infectious killer. Often, depending on the geography or context, it is considered too expensive to treat. Nonsense. We have the means to stop it. Read the October 1, 2023 Partners in Health statement about the decision by Johnson & Johnson not to enforce bedaquiline patents. To say this is a big deal is a phenomenal understatement. This drug is significant in fighting multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB). 

Anna Gordon's July 20, 2023 Time article, "How an Innovative Deal Will Give Millions Access to Cheaper Tuberculosis Drugs" offers a useful description of the present dangers of this ancient disease. She also covers author John Green's social media activism to lower the price of test cartridges. Here’s a recent interview with Green on the podcast series An Arm and a Leg:  “The Fault in our Patents: John Green vs. Johnson & Johnson" Part 1. 

I recommend a very fine essay by Anna Talley about the history of the design of tuberculosis posters published in May, 2020 by Design Observer, “Pandemic Design: What Tuberculosis Posters Can Teach Us About Community.”

Learn more, of course, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). My own response, below, references the late Paul Farmer’s mantra on the attitude of scarcity, which holds us back from solving so many public health dilemmas. 



Tuberculosis, 2023          

​We’re socialized for scarcity for other people…  Dr. Paul Farmer
        

This ancient mother of disease – 
still our top infectious killer – 
can be cured and treated when we please.

One more pharmaceutical tease.  
Who gets to test? Who gets to stop her,
this mother of disease 

mysterious for centuries?
Ambivalence infects now, stealthy and pure. 
TB can be treated when we please.

Scarcity for others, decided with ease
became a global pillar
for this modern mother of disease.

It’s a matter of priorities.
Why not see it as a thriller? 
We can cure. We can treat it when we please.

Governments, people, companies 
can absolutely still her.
This mother of disease
will be cured when and if we please.

Detail from a radiograph of the chest; representing the need for early detection of pulmonary tuberculosis. Color lithograph by G.C. Schulz, ca. 1947. Credit: Wellcome Library no. 660212i.