A book to add for scary season

Alarming news coming out of Chula Vista’s Innovation High School via the county of San Diego reminded me of a book I have been wanting to add to my “To Be Read” pile.

Earlier this week the County of San Diego alerted the community of a potential exposure to tuberculosis between June and September this year.

“Everything is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection” by writer John Green came to mind.

The young-adult novelist is not an epidemiologist or medical professional but the non-fiction book reportedly details the history and carnage of the airborne disease in such a way that mass audiences can appreciate.

It seems as though every year the county issues notices of two or three reports TB cases, whether they be on a college campus or housing shelters.

Nationally the number of cases has increased since 2021, hovering just above 10,000 in 2024. As of March, in California, there were approximately 2,100 infections and San Diego County reported 247 active cases, demonstrating their own slight upticks.

Typically the bacteria is spread through airborne transmission and attacks the lungs. Thankfully deaths caused by TB are less common now then it was when it was referred to as consumption—presumably because of the way the victim wasted away. But that is in the U.S.

Green’s book is said to focus on the social and economic aspects of the disease, writing that the mortality rates are significantly higher in countries that have struggling infrastructure and poor healthcare systems.

That could be what might happen here.

As healthcare becomes more expensive and fewer people have access to preventative care and screening procedures, while at the same time facing high unemployment rates coupled with a growing distrust of the pharmaceutical industry (there is no vaccine for TB given that it is caused by bacteria and not a virus) and a resistance to conventional antibiotics, it should not be surprising that tuberculosis is on the rise. Not surprising but alarming just the same, especially when you consider that as bacteria and diseases evolve, the antibiotics we have to treat them lose their efficacy.

A scary thought just in time for Halloween.