My interest in tuberculosis originated in childhood, when my father had TB and was put in a sanitarium for nine months. I remember waving through a window at a pale-skinned man in a bathrobe and feeling frightened, lost and lonely.
Illness is a great divider.
My dad survived. I'm not sure I did. Mycobacterium tuberculosis haunts me to this day. I imagine it lurking beneath my skin, waiting for an opportunity to blossom into a horrid, devouring ailment. No, Kawamura said.