He has committed millions of his own money to fund solutions for TB, has educated thousands on the subject, and has even worked with his fan community — Nerdfighteria — to demand change from corporate health giants like Danaher and Johnson & Johnson.
I appreciate and respect what this guy do. But why do we celebrate tuberculosis?
More of an awareness day, than a celebration. Do you think Pink October and the rest of them celebrate cancer?
We have a cure for exposure to TB, but no cure once it sets in. The gap between exposure and getting TB can be years which is why it is really important to see a doctor every once in a while.
The test they give is a series of mild skinpricks on the arm. If you see bumps you tell the doctor immediately.
This isn’t my understanding at all. There are several antibiotics that are given as standard treatment for active TB and there have been for over 50 years. There are now drug resistant strains, but we also have 2nd gen antibiotics and rapid tests that can tell exactly which strain of TB you have (and so what antibiotics you should take for treatment). The major obstacle in curing TB worldwide is lack of funding, not lack of medicine.
Edit: I want to emphasize that I’m not an expert. My understanding is also that antibiotic treatment is no guarantee of a cure, especially for people who are immunocompromised or malnourished, and even more so for people who don’t have access to newer diagnostics that can tell you if the TB strain is drug resistant. But I believe a complete treatment (many months with no interruptions) with the correct antibiotics for a particular strain of TB has a high rate of success.
This is factually untrue. It’s treated with very specific mixes of antibiotics but it takes a very long time. That’s part of why John Green has been pushing for this action - it’s easily preventable by vaccine and treatable through antibiotics, no one should be dying from this.
