Phantom Plague

How Tuberculosis Shaped History

By: Vidya Krishnan

Narrated by: Sneha Mathan

The definitive social history of tuberculosis, from its origins as a haunting mystery to its modern reemergence that now threatens populations around the world.

It killed novelist George Orwell, Eleanor Roosevelt, and millions of others - rich and poor. Desmond Tutu, Amitabh Bachchan, and Nelson Mandela survived it. For centuries, tuberculosis has ravaged cities and plagued the human body.

In Phantom Plague, Vidya Krishnan, traces the history of tuberculosis from the slums of 19th-century New York to modern Mumbai. In a narrative spanning century, Krishnan shows how superstition and folk remedies made way for scientific understanding of TB, such that it was controlled and cured in the West.

The cure was never available to Black and Brown nations. And the tuberculosis bacillus showed a remarkable ability to adapt - so that at the very moment it could have been extinguished as a threat to humanity, it found a way back, aided by authoritarian government, toxic kindness of philanthropists, science denialism, and medical apartheid.

Krishnan’s original reporting paints a granular portrait of the post-antibiotic era as a new, aggressive, drug-resistant strain of TB takes over. Phantom Plague is an urgent, riveting, and fascinating narrative that deftly exposes the weakest links in our battle against this ancient foe.

©2022 Vidya Krishnan (P)2022 PublicAffairs

comprehensive

From myths to germ theory, to ill-conceived housing in developments to patton law and fighting to keep TB seen as a world crisis, I found the breakdown very interesting. It unfolded like a documentary. With a balance of treatment barriers and political policies it was an easy listen.

Thoughtful and Insightful

This was more than just a book on tuberculosis, but also a treatise on the socioeconomic structures of the global health system that allows diseases like tuberculosis to continue to thrive. The subjects that were discussed were clearly very well researched and presented in an easily digestible way, interposing statistics of disease with more personal stories of those afflicted with the disease. Very well done, and highly recommended.

Excellent

An important book for everyone. Big pharma, big tech, and global governments and their effect on healthcare.

More than expected

I was inspired to purchase book by an interview with the author. As the book progressed I was taken into more political strife than I had anticipated. That being said the book was informative and worth reading.

More things change, more they stay the same

Given society's recent experience with the novel coronavirus pandemic, this book is a timely review of the intersection of contagious disease (namely tuberculosis) and medical history. The parallels between the response of society more than a century past to that highly infectious disease and today are eerie and timely. Krishnan does a marvelous job weaving these story elements together and making them relevant to the experiences nearly every human has had over the past several years. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in the development of science, medicine, infectious disease, or is just looking to better understand the failings of today's society in dealing with Sars-Cov2. Even with my interest in these things, I was eager to learn of the fight to stem public expectoration (spitting positively forbidden) and the struggle health departments had in changing public behavior to limit the spread of disease. The blame placed on women for having too long of skirts for the spread of disease when it was men doing the spitting reveals that nothing has really changed with respect to victim shaming...that these fights are intergenerational...that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Disappointing.

I never write book reviews but this book is more of a rant than an insightful commentary.
TB, and eespecially MDRTB in particular is a curse on humanity. So what's new?
Life is imperfect and unfair and the author response is to indulges in moral indignation rather than suggesting solutions.
This book is not a history of TB, unfortunately.