Crash Course Lecture: The Deadliest Infectious Disease of All Time
In this Crash Course video, author and “TB-hater” John Green takes a deep dive into tuberculosis.
This is the story of the deadliest infectious disease of all time. It’s been with us for 3 million years, since before humans were homo sapiens. We have evidence of it in the mummies of ancient Egypt, and it’s mentioned in the Hebrew Bible.
We’ve made extraordinary medical advances. Vaccines, antibiotics, and clean water have saved millions of lives. And yet despite that, in 2022, this disease killed more people than malaria, typhoid, cholera, homicide, and war…combined.
It has gone by many names. In ancient China, it was known as huaifu, meaning “destroyed palace.” In ancient Hebrew, “schachepheth,” meaning wasting away. The 19th-century term: “consumption,” for the way it seemed to consume the body. Today, we call it tuberculosis.
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My dad had TB when I very young, maybe 5 or 6. He contracted it while on deployment with the Army and. I don't remember much about it except him coughing up blood and the ambulance coming. And then for some indeterminate amount of time afterward, my entire family had to take these pills with our meals that tasted absolutely disgusting. I can still taste the pills, they just lingered forever and made eating anything terrible for what felt like months.
John Green hating TB are my favorite videos.
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