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Tuberculosis In The 19th Century Essay

Decent Essays

How did Tuberculosis impact the U.S in the 19th century?

While people were worried about the Spanish Flu, and other illnesses in the 1900’s, bacteria was building up in people's lungs. If their immune system couldn’t get rid of the bacteria, it began to multiply and caused Tuberculosis. In the U.S one out of every seven people got Tuberculosis. Tuberculosis impacted the U.S in the 19th century dramatically. It was the leading cause of death in the U.S in the 19th century and the people in the U.S took it very seriously. To begin with, Tuberculosis (TB) is a disease caused by bacteria called Mycobacterium Tuberculosis. This disease is easily spread through the air when a person “coughs, sneezes, speaks or sings.” (CNN News) The bacteria that is spread can stay in the air for hours. In the article “Questions and Answers about TB”, the text states that, “The bacteria usually attacks the lungs.” Even though the disease attacks mostly the lungs, it can attack other parts of the body too. The text also states, “But TB bacteria can attack any other part of the body such as the kidney, spine and brain.” If TB gets to these places in the body and doesn’t get treated properly or treated at all, it could be very fatal. …show more content…

In the article “The Great White Plague” the information says, “TB killed one out of every seven people living in the United States. TB slowly began to decrease the United States.” In other words, TB had slowly worked its way to decrease the U.S population. But the doctors and medical world started paying attention to the disease. Also in the text, it states, “with increased funding and attention to the TB problem, there [had] been a steady in the number of persons with TB.” This information shows that since the medical world had been paying more attention and trying to figure out cures for the disease, that less people had been getting

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