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Tuberculosis Europe
About Tuberculosis Europe
Tuberculosis was the leading cause of death in industrializing Europe and America in the 18th and 19th centuries, earning the name The White Plague. By some estimates, TB caused up to a quarter of all deaths in Europe in the early 1800s. The disease inspired romanticized notions in art and literature, associated with poetic sensitivity and beauty. Keats, Chekhov, and Emily and Anne Bronte all died of TB. The bacillus was discovered by Robert Koch in 1882, work recognised by his 1905 Nobel Prize. TB sanatoriums became common in the late 19th century, offering fresh air and rest. The BCG vaccine was developed in 1921. Streptomycin, the first effective antibiotic, was discovered in Selman Waksmans laboratory in 1943, and Waksman later received the Nobel Prize. TB mortality declined dramatically with antibiotics but resurged in the 1980s with HIV. TB remains the deadliest infectious disease globally, killing more than a million people annually as of the 2020s. Drug resistant TB threatens to reverse decades of progress.
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