Fully Sick and Rapping For a Cure

Like many young Australians, Christiaan Van Vuuren has spent a good amount of his twenties traveling the world. In 2005, he visited Africa and, unbeknownst to him, brought home more than memories. Somewhere in his travels, he picked up a strain of tuberculosis that lay dormant in his lungs until late 2009 when he developed a lung infection while on holiday in Argentina.

"I was drinking and partying hard on holiday and it caught up with me when I got sick for the last part of my time there," he tells Tonic. "When I returned to Sydney, I developed night sweats and it all came to head when I coughed up blood in a client meeting."

He was immediately taken to the hospital where he has spent the past 170 days under quarantine with multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR TB), a virulent strain that acts as its name implies and is very difficult to treat.

"I'm on 6 different antibiotics every single day. The treatment process is extensive, which will lead to 6 months in the hospital and will last over 18 months in total."

So what does a quarantined patient do for so long in isolation? He creates rap songs and becomes an Internet sensation as "The Fully Sick Rapper." With over 20,000 Facebook followers, Van Vuuren has created a series of YouTube videos of himself from his hospital bed, replete with "quarantine rap," a fashion show wearing only his hospital gowns and a film showcasing his quarantine beard.

"I started playing with the video capabilities on my MacBook and started posting funny videos on YouTube to let my friends and family know that I was doing okay. Next thing I knew, it all went viral," he says.

In fact, his video "Life in Quarantine" has over 500,000 views.

In addition to entertaining his followers, Van Vuuren is using his newfound fame to do some good. According to the World Health Organization, more than 2 billion people — one third of the world's population — are infected with TB bacilli, the microbes that cause TB.

"I felt that it would be only right to try and help those with fully sick infectious diseases who don't have access to the quality of awesome treatment that I am receiving," he explains.

Van Vuuren is trying to raise $15,000 AUD ($21,000 USD) for Medecins San Frontiers (also known in some parts of the world as Doctors Without Borders). He's at almost $3,000 AUD ($2400 USD) and hopes to raise more in the next two months while he is still hospitalized. He will turn up the volume on his campaign as he gets closer to an eventual release.

"I will campaign to raise larger amounts of money once I get closer to getting out," he says. "I plan to do this by doing things in return for donations — sending people things, making content and anything else I can do to make a difference."

With a lengthy testing process three times a week, Van Vuuren and his doctors are waiting for TB-free cultures for six weeks in a row before he is allowed to leave. He hopes that doctors will discharge him by the end of June. In the meantime, he plans on creating more films to help his cause (and his sanity).

With all that he has learned in quarantine, Van Vuuren hopes to expand on his film career when he is released. He is working on a screenplay with his brother and hopes that his Internet celebrity will help him in this career move and help fight TB around the world.

What advice does he have for others who might find themselves holed up in a hospital room or other equally-depressing place for such a long time?

"Whenever you feel like you have a problem, or something is wrong, or you're getting angry," he shares, "just remember that there are people all over the world who have things much worse than you do."

And on a final note, Van Vuuren says: "If you are knocked down and you get to that bridge, you can climb a mountain by walking through the door and killing two birds because there's plenty of metaphors in the sea."

Sounds like the beginnings of a new rap song to us. Get well soon, Christiaan.

You can donate to Christiaan's cause here and watch his video below.

Photo courtesy of Christiaan Van Vuuren.