Tuberculosis is the greatest infectious killer in history. Over the last three centuries it was responsible for the deaths of a thousand million people. Feared more than cancer or even bubonic plague, it became a symbol of romantic death, robbing generations of the most celebrated artists, philosophers and writers, including Keats, Chopin, Chekhov and George Orwell, meanwhile inspiring a remarkable cultural legacy, such as the opera, La Traviata, and Thomas Mann’s Magic Mountain. The discovery of the cure for this terrible disease changed the course of human history. Half way through the twentieth century few people worldwide, whether doctors or the ordinary man or woman, believed that such a cure would ever be possible. It was left to a tiny band of unlikely heroes, scattered in different countries, to discover the impossible. Few were tuberculosis experts. Half of them were not medically qualified. This is their story.

This book tells the epic tale of the search for the cure for tuberculosis. It is an extraordinary narrative of human drama, scientific deduction, and original historical documentation. But as consultant physician, Frank Ryan, who for many years travelled worldwide gathering together the intimate details of their lives, the triumph of discovering the cure now comes with a dire warning. The greatest shock was awaiting him in New York, when he discovered that in a deadly alliance with AIDS, tuberculosis was once again threatening both the developed and developing world.