This is a history of tuberculosis, including its social, artistic and human impact. Thomas Dormandy's account of the search for the cure is complemented by a description of its complex natural history; portraits of individual sufferers, including writers, artists and musicians, whose lives were shaped (and often curtailed) by the disease. Tuberculosis is not a disease of the past, in many parts of the world it is still a bigger killer than AIDS; while in America and Europe drug-resistant strains threaten its resurgence.