Now You See It, Now You Don't!
TellzAll's subject for June is Tuberculosis
Throughout much of history, tuberculosis was a disease that had a significant effect on the human population around the world. Thanks to modern medicine, tuberculosis is not very common in the United States today, although it still infects millions in other parts of the world each year.
So what is tuberculosis then? The scientific name for tuberculosis is Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The bacteria first attack the lungs, but the disease can eventually spread throughout the body and affect other organs, bones, and soft tissues. People who are sick from tuberculosis can spread the disease by coughing or sneezing. The bacteria are exhaled through tiny water droplets in the air, which can then be breathed in by someone else. It can take approximately six weeks for the infection to develop in the lungs, although many people do not show symptoms for months or even years after contracting the disease. Common symptoms of tuberculosis include chronic coughing, night sweats, fever, fatigue, a decrease in appetite, and weight loss. Because these symptoms are very similar to those caused by other diseases, doctors have to use x-rays and laboratory tests to confirm that the patient actually has tuberculosis. In the advanced stages of tuberculosis, patients cough up blood as well. Historically, most people were not diagnosed with the disease until it was fairly advanced, but as a result of medical advancements, it is possible to obtain a diagnosis much earlier today.
In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, tuberculosis was the leading cause of death in the United States. Americans’ understanding of basic health and hygiene issues was pretty limited during that time period, and a large number of people lived in poverty. People who worked in dirty factory conditions, where they breathed in contaminated air, tended to be more susceptible to the disease, as were those who lived in crowded tenements in large cities. Housing conditions in urban areas during this time period were primitive, and apartments had very little fresh air coming in. If one person developed tuberculosis in those conditions, it was likely that everyone living in the building would be exposed to the bacteria.
In the 1800s, most people did not have any hope of surviving tuberculosis. The only form of treatment was to go to a sanitarium, where patients were able to rest, receive good quality food, and be separate from other parts of the population that they might infect. People who were able to obtain treatment at sanitariums did experience improvement, but most Americans could not afford that option and were forced to suffer the effects of the disease at home. Public health reformers focused their attention on education about tuberculosis beginning in the late 1800s and early 1900s, trying to help Americans understand how the disease was spread and what could be done to prevent it.
Significant progress in treatment of tuberculosis did not come until the twentieth century, when researchers developed a vaccine that reduced the likelihood of contracting the disease. Selman A. Waksman was able to develop the first pharmaceutical treatment for tuberculosis in 1943, an antibiotic called Streptomycin. In the decades which followed, researchers developed several other antibiotics to treat tuberculosis as well, which can be used individually or in combination with each other.
Although tuberculosis is much less common in the United States and other industrialized nations today than it was in the past, millions of people throughout the world still suffer and die from the disease. People who have weakened immune systems from other diseases, such as HIV or AIDS, are more susceptible to tuberculosis. People who live in conditions of poverty, where sanitation is poor and nutrition is inadequate, are also more likely to contract the disease. The World Health Organization works to reduce the incidence of infection but still reports approximately eight million new cases each year, as well as approximately three million deaths.
