| Scientists discovered years ago tubercles in | | | | in treating tuberculosis. |
| mummified bodies, this proving that TB has existed | | | | At first tuberculosis affected artists and morally |
| at least since 2000BC. Also, writings of the ancient | | | | superior individuals, but as the epidemic was spreading |
| Egypt, Babylonia and China mention about the | | | | continuously, more and more people got affected |
| existence of TB. | | | | including poor and disadvantaged people, and so, TB |
| Tuberculosis was named after the Latin word | | | | was thought to be related to a person's lifestyle. |
| tubercula, first in 1839. tubercula means a small lump, | | | | In 1882, Robert Koch, a German physician discovered |
| referring to the scars that appear on the infected | | | | the germ that caused tuberculosis and how the |
| person's skin. | | | | disease was transmitted. |
| In the 19th century, tuberculosis reappeared as a | | | | In 1924, at the Pasteur Institute, in Paris, Albert |
| pandemic in Europe and US, determining people to | | | | Calmette and Camille Guerin used a virulent strain of |
| research for the causes and possible treatment for | | | | bovine tubercle bacillus to prepare the BCG vaccine |
| TB. | | | | that was discovered to be highly efficient in |
| Gaspard Bayle, a French physician described the | | | | preventing the disease. |
| lesions caused by TB in 900 autopsies. | | | | Also, the beginning of modern anti-biotherapy for TB |
| The evolution of TB from the first tubercle to the | | | | was instituted by Selman Waksman in 1944, when he |
| final stages was described by | | | | isolated streptomycin from a fungus. The antibiotic |
| René-Théophile-Hyacinthe | | | | therapy became the primary treatment and so, |
| Laënnec. | | | | mortality rates of TB decreased. |
| An American physician, Edward Trudeau, was | | | | In 1904 in US there were188 deaths per 100000 and |
| affected twice of tuberculosis, in different years, and | | | | in 1980 were 1 per 100000. |
| he went to the mountain to spend his last days | | | | This improvement lead to a cut in funding public |
| there, because he thought he was going to die. | | | | programs for tuberculosis in the 1980's, leading to a |
| There his symptoms ameliorated and he believed | | | | small rise of the number of persons affected of TB. |
| that the fresh air was responsible for his cure. In | | | | After that, TB continued to spread until the |
| 1885 he built the first American sanatorium which | | | | governments decided that tuberculosis was still |
| became a model for the other 600 sanatoriums that | | | | needed to be paid attention, and refunded the public |
| were built in America by 1930. After that, Trudeau | | | | programs. |
| built the Trudeau Laboratory, which trained physicians | | | | |