A few snippets about tuberculosis

Individuals are assumed to have contracted and died from Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection as long ago as 15,000 years. The oldest fossil records are from Africa. In 1882, Robert Koch, who discovered the tubercle bacillus, estimated that one in seven deaths in Berlin was caused by tuberculosis. Today, about one-third of the world's population is infected with M. tuberculosis. Eight million people develop the disease each year. Of these, approximately 2 million die annually, with most of the deaths occurring in developing countries.
The story of tuberculosis, also called the “white plague,” is the story of the first modern day clinical trial. Selman Waksman was the first to discover that streptomycin was effective against M. tuberculosis; he subsequently won a Nobel Prize in medicine for this work. The history of tuberculosis is also the history of sanatoriums, where tuberculosis patients went to “take the cure” before anti-tuberculous therapy was available. These special hospitals allowed M. tuberculosis patients to breathe fresh, clean air; eat nutritious foods; and rest. The introduction of isoniazid in 1954 finally led to the closing of sanatoriums.

Infectious Diseases and Famous People Who Succumbed to Them Clinical Microbiology Newsletter, Volume 31, Issue 22, 15 November 2009, Pages 169-172 Alice S. Weissfeld