John: Everything is about Tuberculosis, and Tuberculosis is about everything.

I'm stitching my own video because that's a totally normal thing to do.

It occurs to me that I haven't actually ever talked about what tuberculosis IS. It's a disease caused by the pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis that spreads through the air. So when an infected person coughs or talks, you can get that bacteria into your lungs, where it begins to spread and multiply, and then you've got yourself an infection.

Now, not everyone who becomes infected becomes symptomatic, but if you do, it can happen immediately, or it can happen after many years when your immune system gets weakened, and the infection roars in to active disease.

In most cases, if tuberculosis isn't treated, it eventually leads to death. But it can be treated! We have antibiotics that can cure most infections within a few months. [refers to self] That's why this guy keeps harping on tuberculosis. Because when we can get those drugs to people, they don't have to die of this bacterial infection and lung disease.

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