Non-tuberculous mycobacterial pulmonary disease, or NTM lung disease, is an emerging global health threat. It's not contagious. Instead, it's an environmental disease contracted from bacteria that thrive in soil and water all over the world. In the U.S. alone, close to 300,000 people are estimated to have it, including thousands in Arizona, a national hot spot. The incidence rate is increasing as the climate changes and the population ages.
Arizona journalist Terry Greene Sterling first became symptomatic in 2014, but it took three years to get an accurate diagnosis. By then her lungs were damaged. Struck by the lack of news coverage, the unreported global reach of the malady and general ignorance of NTM lung disease in the lay and medical communities, she began reporting what would become this project nine years ago.
Breathless includes a KJZZ FM radio piece that focuses on Greene Sterling's personal story, along with a long-form photo-illustrated investigative narrative in both English and Spanish.
The reporter embeds in the NTM lung disease community as it struggles with flare-ups, living with the disease, high medical costs, insurance issues, health care inequities, and fears over the availability of lifesaving drugs and vaccinations. The reporting weaves personal stories with insights from some of the few doctors and scientists who treat and research NTM lung disease in the U.S.
Greene Sterling reports on a new medicine and several specialized treatment centers being developed throughout the U.S. as incidence of the disease grows.
Image by Amber Victoria Singer. United States.
