The White Plague
The Industrial Revolution Pandemic
Tuberculosis is a lung disease. There are two forms of TB, disease and infection. The disease is easily communicable, such as through coughing, whereas the infection cannot be spread from one person to another. Its symptoms include a cough that won’t go away, chills, fever and weight loss, to name a few. If left untreated it can be fatal and until 1924, when Albert Calmette and Camille Guerin created a vaccine, it was difficult to control its spread, especially among the lower classes. Later, in 1944, Selman Waksman was able to isolate a compound from a fungus, that compound was the antibiotic Streptomycin. With those two discoveries the incidence rate of TB cases in the US steadily declined.
The Industrial Revolution and TB
The poor working and living conditions of the working class during this time period helped to enable the spread of tuberculosis. Laborers and immigrants lived in filthy, overcrowded, rundown tenements and workhouses in close contact with each other. This overcrowding, combined with poor sanitation, long work hours, poor nutrition, a lack of clean drinking water and no health care, allowing the disease to spread rapidly.
During the early 20th Century it was the leading cause of death in the US. It was found that isolating infected patients was the best way to prevent the spread of the disease, leading to the building of sanatoriums throughout the US. Several famous writers and artists were housed in these buildings, leading to its becoming a poetic way to die. As a side note, many ghost hunters believe that the sanatoriums still standing are haunted.
Sanatoriums and Their Rules
A culture of death was hidden inside the beautiful buildings that became sanatoriums. As with most places where death is imminent, there were certain rules that the staff and patients were expected to follow, in an effort to not only avoid scaring the occupants, but to aid in the comfortable passage of the terminally ill.
Patients weren’t allowed to discuss their therapy with other patients. Nurses weren’t allowed to tell the patients how ill they were. And doctors only told nurses and patients as much as they felt they should know. In the far end of the sanatoriums, away from the patients, were crematoriums for the disposal of the dead.
Could It Happen Again?
The question is no longer could it but how many people will it kill. All over the world, citizens of third world countries, or those who live in squalor and poverty, even in industrialized nations are suffering the effects of the White Plague. Though a treatable disease, many of those sick and dying don’t have access to proper medical care, much as those exposed to TB in the late-1800s and the early-1900s. In a recent article, by Mike Stobbe of the Associated Press, US doctors spoke of having to cut back on the giving vaccines to infants and children because they are losing money. Those physicians may be priming the US for another plague outbreak without meaning to. Only time will tell.
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