After an exhaustive search through the American Experience PBS’ website, I cannot find the full videos of The Forgotten Plague. Where can they be found? At this unprecedented time in history, it would be helpful to learn about and from the past.
My husband’s grandmother and her newborn infant died of the Spanish flu. My father in law watched his mother and baby brother die. He was 3 yrs old. His journal notes that he never forgot how it felt to watch helplessly. He vowed to be a doctor and help others. He was later called “ the angel of Karachi .” He treated the rich, the poor, the leper, and anyone who needed a doctor. He made house calls with his black bag. I was privileged to know and love him.
Susie Alavi My grandmother died in that same epidemic. Mama was 5- and had older brothers., Papaw didn't get it or did any of the children. My grandmother had been out hanging clothes in the dead of winter.. and came down Sick. Didn't realize it was the flu... And of course there is no therapy let alone a vaccine which was discovered later.. This flu pandemic has me quite frightened because I'm afraid I might be destined to follow in my grandmother's footprints.... So I'm really going crazy from staying in most of the time and only running off for food I feel like a scared rabbit hole habitat.
This was my mom and I just found a picture from the Kent County Tuberculosis Society. Stated she was tested at school in 1933 and tested positive. She was sent to the Sanatorium for a long stay. She did well even with the lung treatments that she said hurt something awful. She was cured, married and had 3 children and lived to be over 100 years of age
My Beautiful grandmother, mother of 6, was diagnosed with TB about 115 years ago. At the time she was living in NY. My loving grandfather found a 200 acre farm about 21/2 hours drive from his work in NY. He moved his family there and continued to work in the city and to farm. I remember going to the bus station on Friday nights to pick him up and again on Sunday nights for his trip back to NY. During the week he lived with his relatives. My grandmother lived to be 94 or 95. I am 79 and still treasure my grandfather’s loving concern for his “bride”.
Well that story shows to go ya,,, It ain't love, until you give it away or exercise it... Granpa loved his wife, so he kept her well, you know that required some effort & loss of self. Granpa was a great man, for a great woman. Thanks for the story.
My dad had TB when he was a kid and was one of those who spent a year in the sanitarium at Saranac Lake. He recovered and lived to be 92. The Adirondacks became one of his favorite places to hunt, fish and vacation. He and my mom got married in Lake Placid in 1949. God Bless my wonderful parents. 🙏💜💜🙏
I visited Saranac Lake in 1969. It's a lovely place. The cure of TB caused a decline in the local economy because people no longer came to the area to enjoy the clear, mountain hair. The disease was so prevalent that my county had an entire hospital dedicated to the care of TB patients.
Ardith She be careful of "valley fever" in Arizona...also a lung disease caused by something in the soil, they have a lot of dust storms there. Personally knew someone who lost 1/2 of one lung to valley fever while living there...
My mom had Valley Fever! She lived in Henderson Nevada. That's close to Las Vegas. She had to see a infectious disease doctor. She worked in a Casino in the money cage. Valley Fever is related to TB. She could've caught it from foreigners.
@TATTOO VAMPIRE1966 I've had lung problems all my life and still don't know if dry or moist climate is the best. Someone advised me taking a pneumonia shot. It helped tremendously with my chronic cough
@TATTOO VAMPIRE1966 Maybe it's part age and particular affliction plus the atmosphere-air and humidity, all together. I haven't suffered near what you have. But I learned to cope with all my afflictions while taking state of the art meds and do very well. Check out hacres.com.
@@carpediem6568 I was always sick from the various chest, sinus, and throat problems from childhood on... When I was 50+ I had My first pneumonia shot. That year was the first year I didn't have a cold for the whole winter. That shot helped me for about 5 years and I got sick again. I went to a clinic WITHOUT THE RECORD I HAD ALREADY had that shot and had another. I am 65 now and I haven't had a cold for 2 years. If You are sickly with upper respiratory problems this definitely helps!
My grandfather had TB and he, my grandmother and my mother lived for a YEAR in a tent during the depression on the banks of the Shenango River so he could get well. LUCKILY it worked and he lived another 35 years.
My grandmother was quarantined when she had tuberculosis, but we were so blessed that she made it. I would not be here if she hadn't. My mother was not born til a few years after she had gotten better.
When was that? My great aunt was quarantined in the late 60's. Not so very long ago when you think about it. She survived too. My grandmother used to visit her but had to leave the kids in the car. Can't do that now either.
@@rhon715 Interesting. This sanitarium was converted out of old naval hospital barracks. They just tore them down about 10 years ago but they were empty for a long time before that. Now people just live their lives, many on the street.
My grandmother died of TB. My mother was 4 years old. She was raised by her mother's cousin. When I grew up, I studied nursing. After I graduated, I worked a full time hospital job. I also moonlighted at other hospitals with my agency job. I could make a few dollars more if I accepted a job at the TB/HIV hospital. Mom forbid me to work at the TB hospital. She was terrified that I'd catch TB. She didn't want to lose me. I declined the position. My colleagues teased me. I told them that I couldn't take a job that would cause my mother to be afraid.
In 1976, I was working on a med surg floor. Towards the end of June, we admitted an old man with pneumonia. He was in my zone for the entire summer. Mid August, I got sick, high fever, nothing on my chest xray, but recovered inside of a week. I developed a chronic bronchitis which was always made worse when I got a cold. 16 years later, when I needed surgery, a routine chest xray showed an opacity in my right upper lobe. Repeat skin tests showed me to be TB positive. No one picked up anything on my annual physical xrays for 16 years. I took INH for an entire year. I developed asthma in 2012. I moved from NJ to Arizona, and no longer need any medication for asthma. I still get a routine chest xray every year....just in case.
TB is considered endemic in rural parts of Alaska and in Hawaii. I previously worked in healthcare in Anchorage and we had to be tested for TB yearly, as each year there’s 50 or more new cases in Alaska. This illness isn’t gone. It’s not a third world illness.
aliccolo --- I worked in infection prevention here in Southern California in 2009. TB is considered endemic in Mexico. Because we are close to the border, we get TB cases coming across ALL THE TIME. Mercy Hospital in downtown San Diego has at least one, if not 5 TB patients in hospital at any time. And yes, due to DNA testing, we know where they come from: Mexico, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Eritrea. We can differentiate very accurately which country each of the TB cases came from. There is a TB vaccine, but it is not very effective, and causes the recipients the test POSITIVE when given the TB test here (known as the 'Mantoux' test). Vaccinated individuals require a chest x-ray to determine if they really have TB, have had it in the past, or not. Multi Drug Resistant TB is a real danger....and it did not originate here. It is considered a third world illness b/c in the first world countries, people who work in a public-contact venue here are required to be tested for TB before being cleared for work. I don't know if, in the future, schools will require TB testing before admission, but at the rate we get immigrants, testing before admission to school should be required, if it isn't already. Public Health should be doing exactly what the name implies, protecting the health of the public.
But you wouldn't consider having the vaccine if you work closely with TB patients, rather than being tested? If you get TB it could be quite serious. Isn't prevention the smarter option? Preventative medicine. I'm not sure if you were actually caring for known TB patient from your post however. Do you mean that all healthworkers, whether or not they worked closely with TB sufferers were tested? I have worked with TB patients ( Australia, I'm an Aussie) and I was vaccinated as a result. The vaccine is really quite effective enough. I never caught TB, but a couple of nurses who weren't vaccinated did.
@@ingridclare7411-- The TB vaccine is not approved (or available) here in the USA. All health workers are tested yearly for TB, whether they work with TB patients or not
Wow its eary to me, My cousin caught TB as a young child in 70s in Greece, The doctors sent him to live in the mountains for 5 months. He survived and thrived. He is married now with 5 kids.
Nikoletta I test positive for TB and have to get chest x-rays to show I don’t have active TB every time I do volunteer work with a new organization. It’s been suggested I came in contact with it in my late teens working in West Philadelphia around 1999/2000. It’s still around the US in areas extremely lacking resources.
Nikoletta thanks, I think I have developed natural immunity because I came in contact with it and didn’t get sick, but that’s not a guarantee from doctors reactions.
@@JenniferDaniels909 In the 1950s and 60s and later in England schoolchildren were given the BCG (anti TB). First they were tested for TB and if they were clear they got the full injection. As a result TB virtually died out so the Conservative government of Maggie Thatcher discontinued the programme. Since then, migrants have reintroduced TB and it is spreading. When I had the test I was positive for TB and was sent for a chest X-ray. The X-ray showed the characteristic signs of TB but my immune system had beaten it off. I'm pretty sure that I caught the bug when my father overwintered seed potatoes under my bed since they were covered with a layer of earth from his allotment. Thanks dad!
Terry Shulky oh wow, wouldn’t have thought you could come in contact with it from soil. And I see we grew up in very different places :) I tested positive for it before the age that I could get the vaccine - I had volunteered as a candy striper in a hospital in New York before I was technically old enough to do so and so I somehow wasn’t tested until the next year when I went through the official volunteer process so may have come in contact with it then. (Years before volunteering in Philadelphia.) My mother died a long time ago so no one to ask for the proper timeline. I just know now I always need chest X-rays to show I don’t have TB.
These stories make us feel like we are witnessing these events. How amazing that Mr. Trudeau discovered how to treat his consumption symptoms. Thank God for Fresh air.
The mountains with a lot of very big pine trees are a very healthy place to live. Unfortunately, I live in North Carolina and would love to live in the mountains but when you go there the pine trees are not like the ones in the Northeast. The tallest mountain on the East Coast is in North Carolina and when you drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway and go to the top you see how scraggly all the pine trees are because of pollution coming from the West the Blue Ridge Mountains are a buffer and take the Brunt of all the horrible pollution. Still, I love it there. I was there last month I wish I could stay forever but my family is here in the Triangle
Visiting the desert or higher altitudes was often prescribed for lung problems, tb, bronchitis, etc. In the 30s my mother couldnt shake a cold so dr recommended a desert vacation. They went from LA to Palm Springs for 2 weeks. Very poor during the Depression, stayed in a cheap motel. Came home cured.
My grandmother died at 35 leaving 9 children. Her sadness and depression came from the thought of leaving her children, not death. In those days women suffered leaving children because early deaths were common. How sad...
My great grandmother died at a similar age of 'English cholera' (?), leaving six children. My grandmother was the eldest at 16 and went on to raise her siblings, a remarkable woman.
@@deanwinchester3356 In the past there wasn't any birth control. Women married very young because of short life spans. My grandmother was 15 and had her 1st child at 16. She also had 2 sets of twins! Truthfully, I doubt women wanted large family but the times forced them into this unfortunate situation.
Violet Gruner I'm sorry. However, no woman needs to just keep on getting knocked up endlessly. I know the Catholics did based on their religious belief. But there was a murder case recently which featured a witness who had brought seven children into the world, but she was such a truly sorry person that all but two of the kids were shipped out for relatives to raise. Then you have the Welfare Chicks who breed like rabbits because they know their checks will grow with each additional child! And you have the people who just love children and happily have the money to raise them well. But still - I would never do it!
In England they built a huge hospital on the Isle of Wight just for TB patients. Row upon row of veranda's where the patients were exposed to the fresh sea air. The air in the cities was so putrid they did'nt stand a chance of recovery. Many did'nt return but some survived. Its now a beautiful park but some say there is an atmosphere of sadness about the grounds.
How interesting! I didn't know that. Amazing some survived, maybe it was the " air". Wonder where we would find that now, if needed. Sounds at least like a lovely place to recuperate, or..... spend your last days. Thx for that info! I would like to look that up. No one I know had TB...but, my grandfather died at 29 of that 1918 flu epidemic! Hmmmmm, now we are facing about the same! Who'd of known that?
@@Melinda8162 Your Welcome! The hospital was in Ventnor on the Isle of Wight. We had two uncles who became ill in the 1930's. Sadly both died. No idea if they were sent to the Hospital from London which also had a couple of "Chest" hospitals. Yes, we are now facing these terrible pandemics again. Stay safe.
@Tia J The hospital scenes in "Alfie" were filmed at York House and gardens in Twickenham, Middx. One of my favourite films. Found the info on the Reel Streets website.
My paternal grandfather's first wife died in North Carolina at a TB sanitarium. She left behind five children, the oldest only 16. My grandfather quickly remarried so they'd have a mother; however, my grandmother was only 18 - just two years older than the oldest child. Plus, she had mental health issues that plagued her entire life. Those poor children not only lost a mother; they also gained a stepmother who wasn't cut out to be a mother.
Diana Riley ...my father in laws, own father died at 35 years old...round 1933 or 35. Not exactly sure...as Pops didnt say much. Rest both their souls...HBN, 1928 to 1996. Truly, I loved you, H loved you, Danielle. Now Mom is with you both, with you all. As are my own parents, AJD n HMBD in 97 n 05. Much love, we miss you and God rest your souls,Beloved Parents....We will See You On the Other Side. When It Is Time. As Our Lord Wills. And Our Bodies Die.
My great grandfather had TB in the late 1920s-mid 1930s. He was in and out of sanitariums during this time, eventually being "cured" after an extended stay in Saranac Lake, New York. My mother picked it up because he lived with them while not in treatment. She never had any symptoms, her body fighting it off. To this day, Mom, age 94, comes up positive on a TB test. My grandmother never had it despite having had the Spanish Flu in 1918. (It seemed people who survived that flu gained some sort of resistance to TB.)
@@chasleask8533 You're kidding, right? It's just that I've heard stuff from anti-vaxxers nearly as stupid. So just in case you were not kidding: THERE WAS NO FLU VACCINATIONS IN WWI. Spanish flu killed something like 50 million people--thats _50 million_. While the flu vaccine they make up each year these days can't promise you no flu, that is because there are sometimes dozens of different strains roaming around infecting people, and they have to guess which 3 will be the most prevalent months before flu season so they can manufacture the vaccine. And even though the flu vaccine can't promise you complete protection from all the different flus running around in any give year, you should still get it, every year. Why? Roughly 80,000 people died of influenza in the US in 2018, the worst year in decades. Thirty thousand a year is a more usual number. It's not perfect, but it might just save your life.
@@otrame You need to check your information buddy. Greece had no Spanish flu because it did not take up America's generous offer of its vaccine. That's how the scam was discovered.
@@otrame There was no flu vaccine until the late 30's early 40's. In fact, the influenza virus wasn't discovered until 1930. How a vaccine for a virus that wasn't even identified in 1918 spread Spanish flu is quite a stretch even for the anti-vaxer/conspiracy fringe. Where do they get this stuff?
I have researched the influenza of 1918 extensively. My library is packed with books from the most reputable docs and scientists. That flu did not originate in Spain. It began in our own heartland. It spread like wildfire. It is believed to have been transmitted by a young man who contracted it on his farm and took it to the camps during WWl. Scientists say it was contracted from poultry and is definitely air borne. The reason it was named "Spanish Flu was because it was first published in a newspaper in Spain. Other parts of the world and esp the US were not permitted to write about it. Spain was loose and they wrote about everything. There are many good books on the subject. I started my research with a book by Laurie Garrett called "The Coming Plagues ";She is an excellent Investigative Journalist . It was in the mid 80's when I first began my Flu journey. Intriguing to say the least. She has a new book out called "Ground Zero which is equally as intriguing.
My grandfather died of it. He came back from World War I after he was exposed to mustard gas. And then he worked in coal mines. He died on my mother’s 12th birthday. I teach this. So others remember. So I remember. So my children remember. If we do not remember for the future, they have nothing to remember it all.
Turberculosis left such a deep mark that my great aunt used to take me to get regular tb tests even in the late 60's and early 70's. By then I think TB was rare.
Got exposed to TB while in nursing school....several years later a positive skin test revealed the extent of the exposure. I was determined to be a "PPD converter", a carrier but no active disease. I spent a significant amount of time on INH, folic acid, and vitamin B. Still a converter, but healthy after all these years. I was 19 when exposed, and 65 now.
Similar story here. Was exposed while working at a huge retirement community. I had to go through the CDC for medications & tracking. I have a history of asthma & now I also have blood clots in my lungs all the time-more meds for that. Scary stuff.
What many people don't know anymore: In the past, tuberculosis was often transmitted by (cow) raw milk. My grandparents had a farm in Rhineland-Palatinate/Germany until the early 70s. I can still remember that there was a sign on the stable door - This stable is tuberculosis-free. And it was checked regularly. To this day, many older people do not drink uncooked or unpasteurized milk. Because they still know what the consequences can be.
We lost some a cow and calf that had to be killed. The vet said it would spread and the other cows were not yet affected. Even after the two infected animals were gone, he recommended moving their pasture for a time and luckily there was a barn in our back pasture we used for injured animals to keep them from being jostled.
My great grandmother on my father's side died of tuberculosis at 32 years of age in July, 1918. She left my great-grandfather with three small children. He never got over her death.
My paternal grandfather died of TB in 1941, not long before the introduction of streptomycin, that might have saved his life. He was only 41 years old. My grandmother had it, too, but survived. I never knew him because I was born in 1950. Thanks so much for this video. I know very little about this period of American history, and this disease that took my father's father when my dad was only 17 years old.
My Dad was born in Ireland in the year 1907. He told me of his best school mate. On a Friday they walked home together and said goodbye at his friends gate. The next Monday when he went to pick him up he discovered that he and several members of his family had passed away from TB. It must have been unbelievably tragic and frightening.
@@maryelizabeth6797 Lol, autocorrect comes up with the funniest inserts. I love anti-Vader though, I think I should use that from now on, made me smile!
I have the TB antibodies along with a few members of my family. My dad had full blown tuberculosis after he was being treated by a quack of a doctor. For 2 months he was losing weight, loss of appetite, coughing up blood and night sweats. He survived, but it was crazy times. This was in the mid 90s.
My friends mother was sent to a sanatorium when she was 3 yrs old. This was in 1954 she was 6-7 when she could come back home. She remembers not knowing her mother when she came home. And for awhile it was like living around a strange, but it straighten out and she became mama again. TB was fairly common in the 40s and early 50s you would hear it talked about. In the 60s 70s seldom and finely not at all.
I'm an old man. As a child, I would listen in on conversations by adult family and their friends about the old days. Frequently they would talk about people, and if speaking of their passing the reason frequently given was "TB." You never heard of "tuberculosis" ... The disease was always referred to as TB. TB hospitals dotted the landscape; my location had both a city and a county hospital.
When we were around seven years old, early1950's, one of my best child pals and I would get on our bikes and ride down the street around the corner to the convenience store for a big dill pickle each. The contest was to see who could finish the pickle first as we rode back home. But, always, across the street back in the thick stand of pine trees we viewed a long, one-story, white-framed building with large windows, one for each room spanning floor to ceiling. We knew not to go onto the grounds and I remember seeing no one out and about. It was a "working" sanctuary for people with TB which carried on its duties most quietly and unobtrusively for about a decade when the facility was demolished and the grounds turned into a park.
@@nancyayers6355 I actually, for some reason left that out of the paper I turned in. But, I told another teacher, who read my assignment, about it. He said, "That would have added a lot to your story." From that comment, I learned how to write, as well as how to study.
My father died of TB in 1950 and my mother had half a lung removed in 1954. They found she had TB again in 1975 and they treated her with antibiotics but they also found she had Schleraderma which took her that spring. The four children have been TB free so far, I remember having to go in for chest xrays every year as a kid..
I’m so sorry that you all went through that. It must have been very hard and scary for you. I really hope that you all remain healthy in your family now and if anything happens that modern medicine will be able to help you.
Thank you for the kind thoughts, out of 4 kids there are two of us left. I'm 72 now and in reasonable health, I think one thing that has kept me on the right side of the grass is I never smoked, back in the 50's everybody smoked. TB killed a lot of people in the 40's and 50's, modern antibiotics almost wiped it out till some aids related variants proved drug resistant.
Many thanks for this documentary. There aren't enough people alive today who remember what a scourge it truly was. Three of my mother's uncles died of it as young men. FWIW they lived in the outdoors, natives of the Dakotas. I remember visiting the family home, where she still wouldn't allow me to go into the attic (as kids sometimes like to explore) for fear that there might be some danger - so many years later.
My grandmother died from TB in 1934 at the age of 27 in north central Texas...she had 3 daughters... one was my mother... Never got to meet her or know her...
My father was ill with tb for 5 years from the age of 19. He was one if the first human guinea pigs tested with the new antibiotics and survived. He married at 27, had 5 children and lived to 82. However, he was haunted by the memory of all the other young men who died one by one in his ward.
One innovation made to try and combat the spread of TB in the West as it was settled is something many people associate with spitting out chewing tobacco but was actually devised to give TB patients a place to spit out the sputum TB caused and hopefully minimize the risk of accidentally infecting friends and neighbors. The common spitoon was developed for use in saloons for that purpose. The spitoons contained an antiseptic ring around the rim to further diminish the chance of accidental infection.
My grandfather lost a lung and half his stomach to tuberculosis. He wasn’t able to fight in wwii because of it. I remember as a child going swimming with him and he having scars all over his chest and abdomen. He was lucky.
My grandmother had TB and was sent away so her kids didnt get it and my grandfather couldnt take care of the kids that's when my mother and her siblings were sent to orphanage, my mom has always tested positive for TB but never had the sickness, my mom always spoke with love of her time in orphanage, she said her dad would take the kids to see their mother and say hi through a screened porch!
I was in a foster home when I was 14 years old and my foster family's son was 24 in 1978 and he had Tuberculosis. He eventually died from it in 1980 but this disease has not been eradicated it's only been suppressed. This happened in Sault Ste Marie, Michigan in 1978 and that hasn't been that long ago only what 40 something years?
My grandmother had TB. She spent over 5 years in a santorium. She had 1 of her lungs removed as well as a number of her ribs. She lived for several decades before she died. 🇭🇲🇭🇲🇭🇲🇭🇲🇭🇲
My God, from that one disease alone, perhaps a BILLION people have suffered and perished. Life has sure got a boat-load of obstacles. Makes me think about how incredibly tenuous life is, just to start with. All these comments are great !
Somehow my family were lucky we had no one die of TB or the Spanish Influenza..I grew up in the Mohawk Valley in NY .....maybe where I grew up with the good fresh air saved my grandparents...I grew up near Saranac lake
My aunt was originally from Saranac Lake and she had tuberculosis but lived to be 90 something. I lived most of my life in Cayuga county and that is where my aunt ended up raising 8 children and nursing.
While living in Maine I remember how much oxygen was in the air because of the Monstrous pine trees. We would visit our family in New York and when we hit New Hampshire on the way back our lungs expanded. Extra oxygen couldn't hurt people with lung problems. I'm sure it helped people with TB
During this plague , my great aunt was sterilized ; she was forbidden from having children because she contracted TB. She recovered and lived to 100 yrs old. We celebrated every holiday with her and her husband, my uncle ( who lived to 102.) Uncle Jack remembers how he would stand on a hill across a field from the hospital where she was quarantined and wave and hold up signs. He never got the disease.
This was really interesting, it’s something I’ve never really understood. It was only in recent years I understood that consumption that I’d read about so many times in my old fiction history novels was TB. I was very confused before that. I know a little about it in modern history now, but this little video you’ve provided about it starting out in America and how devastating it was is new to me. I’ll look up the full documentary. Thank-you for sharing.
My grandmother died of TB when my father was just 9 years old. It had gotten into her bones and she was in great pain before she died. 3 of her siblings died of TB before they were 10. One of my uncles spent years in a sanatarium before finally being cured. My father had a spot on his lung. I am 60 now. 25 years ago, I worked in hospital and all new employees had to be tested for TB, which turned positive for me. I did not have active TB, but I had to take medication for a full year. Hard to know where I got it from. However, I later found out that I have an immunodeficiency disorder, leaving me susceptible to germs like TB.
My Dad had it before much could be done. He survived. And thrived. My Mom had it in the mid 1960’s when drug treatment was available. She was quarantined for 6 months, my sister and I had to be tested by the health department every 6 months. She was fine
I recently came across a family tree for my paternal line going back 14 generations. It seemed common that~ A man would marry, have half a dozen kids; One, two, or three would die, then his wife would die. He would then marry a widow who had had half a dozen kids, one, two, or three had died, then they would have half a dozen together, a couple may not live to maturity. That's why people married young, had as many kids as they could, in hopes that a few would live to carry on. This happened at least three times in my family line. There are a couple instances where one of his sons married one of her daughters < or vise versa >. I understand in Colonial times this was not thought of twice, perhaps even encouraged, although it sounds odd to our modern sensibilities.
They're not related. Still happens today. Nothing weird about marrying someone your not related to. What's weird today is that instead of hooking up with friends or people your close to your supposed to screw strangers you met on your phone.
sailorbychoice1 I got my lines all back to the old countries...earliest to come were the French Canadians in 1653, last the Irish in 1870. Also saw the multiple wives and many children some of whom died in infancy or early childhood.
Well, Doc Holiday didn't go to London or any of the other hubs of industry and overcrowding. Like a lot of folks, he discovered he'd actually do better in the west. Granted, the booze and smokes weren't healthy. But various opiate concoctions could be had in even modest sized towns and those did help a bit with symptom relief.
My grandmother died of TB in Germany in 1940 during a time when there really was no cure and during war times. I feel sad that I never got to meet her and in most of the photos I see of her she was laughing and full of gaiety. Those photos of my mother at the age of 3 with her remaining relatives just looked sad and anguished.
That is what my parents talk about. They were in Poland during the war. Later, they were vaccinated. It was approximately 1946 when my parents were vaccinated. My father was vaccinated in school. They lined all the children up to give it to them, same needle until it got dull from several injections.
I remember going to a sanarorium to sing Chrisrtmas carols. A peds nurse I first worked with had to go a sanatorium. Laws are still on the books that if you dont take the treatment to stop spread you can legally be kept in your house, going nowhere. It never goes away ,it only gets halted so patients are taught to watch for sx if they were weakened by another disease. And isnt always in lungs. One case of spinal tb and one in urinary tract. Harder to detect these.
I had a great uncle who contracted TB in France in 1918 in the trenches. He returned from war to Illinois then moved to Albuquerque for his health. He eventually died there in Dec. 1928.
My mother lost her father to this disease when she was 7 yrs old, and a daddy’s girl. Affected her terribly. She died a raging alcoholic at the age of 42. 😢
I've always loved to read biographies and noticed that a lot of famous writers died of T.B. An it is noticeable that so little is made of it; mentioned only in passing in relation to how famous the person was.
@@ReenyNY When did it stop? I was vaccinated against it in 1974 in Australia as I looked after some TB patients. Its an effective vaccine. I knew 3 nurses who caught it due to not being vaccinated. Apparently in America you guys don't vaccinate health workers who are actively caring for TB patients, America just tests them regularly with the Mantoux Test. Then if a health worker tests positive, they are then treated etc. This is pretty wild and more expensive. We still vaccinate healthworkers who care for TB patients, though a few states are using your system, but actually doctors here don't approve of it. If I wasnt vaccinated I wouldn't work in a TB ward. In the 80's Australia had v few TB cases, due to mass screening/mass xrays etc and prompt treatment of those found to have TB but its steadily increasing now due immigrants from areas when TB is endemic. Frankly, its a bloody nightmare. www.nps.org.au/australian-prescriber/articles/bcg-vaccine-in-australia
I took all the vaccines in the 60’s. They weren’t dirty with dangerous adjuvants, heavy metals and aborted fetal tissue like today. Some of the vaccines are dirty today and the CDC’s own records say 60% of people that took the MMR vaccine were damaged by it. Dr. Ben Carson said some vaccines you need (smallpox, polio, etc...) and some will hurt you. Bill Gates said they are going to reduce the population by 90% using vaccines.
Back in the 1990's, there were cases of TB in men who lived on the street. Now there's a TB outbreak in Alabama. It's impossible to figure out why, because the people who get the disease aren't always living in closed spaces. I never got the BCG vaccine, but I never got the disease.
@@dontaskmeimjustagirl...5798 Medieval behavior will lead to medieval disease. Thank your local homeless, and "safe" drug injection centers advocates. Not for "helping people", but for politically intercepting, and crushing every sensible measure put forward to protect the public.
Coral Allan, does it make any sense at all that Los Angeles has quarantined healthy college students who merely cannot prove immunity to measles, YET they don't do jack friggin' squat about the disease-ridden squalor surrounding the homeless encampments?????
There were so many communicable diseases that took lives, before antibiotics and immunizations became common. TB was still being fought during my lifetime here in Canada, in the 60’s mobile chest X-ray trailers screened for the disease.
Most people received treatment too late. Sunshine, fresh air, good diet and rest were enough to stop the progression in many cases if treated early. Unfortunately, crowding, A very long work week, poor diet and childbirth in close succession all contributed to disease spread. Few people had the funds and foresight to turn immediately to bedrest, fresh air, good diet and sunshine. It's very sad that urbanization led to the death of so many. Most people could fight the TB bacteria, as long as they were not exposed to excessive stress.
I wonder how much of the "fresh air " was getting out of buildings and shaded city streets and into the vitamin D generating sunshine? Could Vitamin D supplements have helped save lives back then?
Fran Tabor Definitely something to think about. You rarely saw a natural redhead with TB you know why?? I didn’t but now it makes me think. As redheads we produce our own vitamin D since we burn easily out in the sun. Makes a lot of sense.
@@kaylamesser5733 I knew redheads burned easily, but did not realize you produced vitamin D more readily. It would be interesting to know what other diseases you redheads are more resilient to, perhaps that more than made up for the occasional sunburn?
@@friendlyone2706 The darker you are, the more sunlight you need to get enough vit. D. That's something that should be wide spread. It's so easy to take vit.D supplements and with to little vit.D you can get tired, or even depressed. I think it's the main reason why people far from the equator are mostly white.
Fresh air is great...unless you're allergic to every tree, grass, pollen, dust, etc. Nature can be very unhealthy for some of us, sadly. I do agree that polluted city air is not good for anybody, not back then, and not today.
@Carpe Diem My allergist suggested I move to 14,000 feet above sea level where I would be above the treeline. Seriously. I reminded him I also need oxygen to survive. lol
No Tibetan high altitude gene here either! I can't even survive a night in Colorado Springs or Telluride without extreme muscle fatigue the next day lol Glad to hear the HEPA filters provided relief to your son. HEPA filters do help me at night. I live on Claritin-D 24 hour pills every day, allergy season or not. It's been that way for two decades now. If I stop taking them for a few months, the fatigue is overwhelming. At least now it's no longer a prescription that costs me a couple hundred dollars AND the expense of paying an allergist to authorize the refills. Apparently, my blood work shows a strong allergy to tumbleweed, too, so my allergist told me to avoid the desert at all costs? lol Of all the things to which one can be allergic, I hadn't considered tumbleweed a high possibility? lol I really dislike the desert, so that was no loss. Crazy how one's immune system can turn on you. I'm grateful I haven't had to consider a plastic bubble. I've never considered myself to be medically fragile, but these allergies are proving I'm not as resilient as I'd like to be. Rats! lol
Nature is not unhealthy for people. A damaged immune system from our modern unhealthy lifestyle choices, unnatural food processing, and environmental toxins we are exposed to is why we are abnormally allergic to nature.
@@WeRNthisToGetHer Some of what you say is true. ...and nature can be VERY unhealthy. Here are several examples.... ...sun exposure (and I'm not even talking about sun BURN, just daily exposure) ...mold ...arsenic ...freezing temperatures ...ocean water ...wild animals ...mosquitos ...parasites I could go on and on. However, I do understand what you are saying, it's a valid point, and that can be and is true in some instances.
In my early 20's while I was working as a police officer I tested positive for TB and had to take daily preventive medicine for 6 months. It scared the crap out of me. I'm sure I was exposed to it while working. I'm just glad we now have meds for it and that it wasn't something more serious like HIV.
I remember my grandmother talking about ppl w/TB back in the early ‘70’s. In the ‘90’s while teaching Preschool for Regional Head Start in Oregon, many of the children from Mexico & their family members were positive for TB. As staff we were required to take a TB test every Fall when we came back to work after “Summer Vacation”. Bc of the stories my grandmother told as a child, I was always concerned about getting TB bc we were required to go to students homes for “Home Visits”. This was to teach parents how to be the first teachers of their children in the home. This was to link home & school for building the foundation of education in a child’s life. TB is on the rise in the US bc many come to the US from Mexico w/TB. It’s very sad to watch this video & know that the ppl thought it was hereditary instead of realizing that they were sick in the city bc TB is airborne. When one gets away from so many other ppl & breathe fresh air it’s bc the bacteria doesn’t live where their host is away from so many others. It’s vital as well that parents have their children immunized. Many in Mexico are not immunized as children like the children in America. It’s time in the 21st Century that all Countries get on board w/making sure that their citizens are immunized against diseases as children. If we have the prevention there is no reason why that all shouldn’t be immunized in every Country. It’s very very sad that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP Virus) developed a virus in a lab in Wuhan & released it w/o a cure. Then w/held info. for months before telling anyone & spread the virus worldwide causing a pandemic. I believe that they did this to negatively affect the economy of the US. Now they’re telling their ppl that the US started the virus & they’re not allowed to hear any other news than the CCP propaganda. God is still protecting America as we acted quickly after we found out about the virus, saving countless lives from a higher death rate in the US.
My grandmother was born in 1908. She had an uncle that died from TB. He must have been quite a character. She said he had one leg and thought he lost it during the Spanish American War. She learned in her later years that he was drunk and pass out on the train tracks. A train ran over his leg and cut it off. He didn't get TB until he was old. He lived out west and came back to Illinois when he was fatally ill.
Interesting doc. Beautiful scenery shown in the opening of this doc. Doing the family tree i came across ancestors who died from this. its no exaggeration on the way it affected so many families.
My Maternal Grandmother died of TB she was in her mid 30's. She left a husband and 4 young children. My Mother was the eldest of the 4. My Grandmother's Sister also died of TB. I wish I could have known them, wish so much they could have been cured back then. 😢💔
My mother was a registered nurse and was exposed to TB and tested positive. She was terrified of getting the full disease but she never did. More than that she was afraid for us three children.
My auntie in Scotland had T.B. in a lymph gland but recovered. A homeopath told me that is why I gave bad lungs. My mother always tested positive for tuberculosis but did not develop symptoms. Have bronchitis every year and pneumonia every yesr sometimes twice a year. However this year no pneumonia or bronchitis! Prayer helps.
I read and I can't remember where (New York Times?) that there was a program somewhere in New Jersey in which health workers paid homeless TB patients daily to go to a location to receive and take their medication in presence of a witness. Every time I ride the subway I want to hold my breath.
Doctors and nurses and staff who work with Tuberculosis and infection are brave and need recognition..Or import nurses from poorer less developed nations. Ebola in Liberia and Africa was a real scare
To me the woman looks gaunt and sickly. Dark under the eyes. In a day when women were much more robust. Nowadays the desired look for women is thin and gaunt as far as the fashion industry goes at least. So this woman appears normal nowadays but not back then.
Has anyone else been told by a family member that TB was responsible for the loss of their eye and/or eyesight? My favorite uncle grew up on a 96 acre farm on Jerusalem Mountain in Mill Creek West Virginia, he had one glass eye and was blind in the other. He stated that he developed TB around the age of ten, and this aided in him losing a lung and his right eye and going blind in the other. His blindness as part of our family’s history is understood to be due to the TB. Does anyone else have a share a similar experience or memory with family?
My grandfather had tuberculosis. He he was born in 1898. Today's his birthday and he's already 123 years old!!! According to him, the doctors told him he will no longer live after two weeks but if you guys can see him at this time, the ol' bugger is still alive and kicking!
Consumption killed my great grandfather 1904..Upstate, NY.. My mother was a nurse in a TB hospital... She spoke of how they wrapped pts up in blankets as they sat on a lg. Porch in the fresh,cold upstate NY air... today,we are tested for TB, prior to certain procedures,meds,lg groups etc..
Our TB sanitorium is a psychiatric hospital now...oddly enough,one I got help from when I was 15. I'm studying to become a mental health counselor, and I want to do my internship and be employed there.
My great grandfather died from this. He was only 21 in 1943 and daughter only 6mo when he passed. He was in the civilian corps and he ended up dying in one of their camps.
@@mckenziewright2866 Were the Civillian Corps a nationalist version of the Peace Corps,or was it more like the National Works Projects spawned by FDR to help combat the Great Depression?
I don’t really know much about the Peace Corps. Essentially it was a non-military entity that was similar to the military that men who did not meet draft standards could still join, should they have a medical condition. And at the time they were doing a lot of construction work in rural Tennessee and they served as the construction crews. This is the time when the Tennessee Valley River was damned and a lot of other rivers in the area were as well. (my family is from Davidson County which is Nashville.) essentially it was a way to serve the country as these structures were used as hydroelectric dam‘s that were used in the factories in Nashville. There was a big munitions factory and Dupont was also located there and they built a lot of arms for the military. As well as manufacturing other goods. At this time the south was still recovering from the great depression and this was an easy way for them to get employment in order to support themselves and their families. As the government would hold back a portion of their check to send to their wives or families. due to the nature of these camps that were similar to a military base at the time I believe probably lead partially to his death. Additionally the family said to my grandmother, his daughter that he suffered from a heart condition. But I checked the death certificate and it said tuberculosis. There’s an article on Wikipedia. I don’t care what you say about Wikipedia but it’s a really good place to start research. Because you can use the resources that they list as a starting point.
proud2bpagan yeah it was part of the new deal by FDR. But it is also to help improve development in that specific part of the country. Which was Tennessee did affect that a lot of that state was still pretty rural. If you look into cultural things where they talk about the mining you’ll hear about the TV a authority. Which is Tennessee Valley Authority and they were essentially one of the first power companies in the area. It really changed the area, due to the fact that there was parts of the state were there was not even electricity.
My great Aunt Beatrice died of consumption at her family home in the early 1900's. My grandmother said their mother tended to her in an upstairs bedroom midwinter-- the windows open. Northern Wisconsin winters are very cold. Beatrice was 17. My grandmother often spoke of her beauty.
My father is a carrier for TB, he can't get people sick, and he himself is healthy for the most part. But if given a TB test, it will come back as positive.
@@helengibbs3153 I always thought of him sort of as like a Typhoid Mary only more like TB Daddy only he can't make people sick...and wouldn't try to if he were contagious!
My grandmother had TB in the 1940s and was quarantined for 6 months. She lived back east, I believe in Rhode Island. She survived it along with breast cancer during that time and lived to be 85.
Two of my grandmother’s siblings died of TB. so sad to look at a picture of that family and know that the pretty girl and her handsome brother will die.
Many gravestones had confumtion on them as the cause of death. I didn't know what that was when I was a child. People went from England to Italy in the hope of living longer.
My maternal grandfather developed tuberculosis, went to the TB hospital, and lived. However, his wife took up with the postman, resulting in a divorce. I have all manner of half relatives due to this disease. Ain't life grand?
My G -grandmother was orphaned at 7 or 8 in Germany back in 1912/1913 when her whole family died of the flue and was sent to two living aunts hear in the USA. Although she inherited the equivalent of 50 million US dollars in today's money all of the wealth and privilege in the world can not replace a loving family.
Mark says My grandfather came to the United States in 1912, to Ellis Island and was sent back to Norway because he showed positive for TB. His brother had died of the disease in Norway while a college in Bergen. My grandfather came back thru Canada and entered the US thru the pinerys in Minnesota, working there until the great war broke out. Then he joined the war effort, went to fight in France for the US, and became a citizen thru his efforts.
My mother and father met in a sanitarium in 1931. My mother had a horrible scar on her chest form a thorectomy. they collapsed one of her lungs believing the other would become stronger it eventually contributed to her death when she got pneumonia at 35. Mt father swore they were wrong and that he never had TB. He believed that the shadows on his lungs were from Pneumonia as a child. he lived to be 90 years old and out live three wives the exrays were so primitive he could have been right.
My GRANDFATHER died of TB in 1931, his oldest daughter survived. Both infected by raw milk from TB infected cows. Animals on the farm had contracted the desease as well.
Learn more about the documentary, THE FORGOTTEN PLAGUE, including where to watch the full film: www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/plague/
After an exhaustive search through the American Experience PBS’ website, I cannot find the full videos of The Forgotten Plague.
Where can they be found? At this unprecedented time in history, it would be helpful to learn about and from the past.
@@yaakovina = you gotta purchase the DVD.. It is on there..
deserthorizons I found it!
Here’s the link:
ruclips.net/video/Qosf9EkEr28/видео.html
@@yaakovina =Thank you.. I will watch it now..
@@yaakovina it's been taken off
My husband’s grandmother and her newborn infant died of the Spanish flu. My father in law watched his mother and baby brother die. He was 3 yrs old. His journal notes that he never forgot how it felt to watch helplessly. He vowed to be a doctor and help others. He was later called “ the angel of Karachi .” He treated the rich, the poor, the leper, and anyone who needed a doctor. He made house calls with his black bag. I was privileged to know and love him.
So sad
I think there is not a more terrible feeling than feeling helpless...
Love your story
Susie Alavi
My grandmother died in that same epidemic. Mama was 5- and had older brothers., Papaw didn't get it or did any of the children.
My grandmother had been out hanging clothes in the dead of winter.. and came down Sick.
Didn't realize it was the flu... And of course there is no therapy let alone a vaccine which was discovered later..
This flu pandemic has me quite frightened because I'm afraid I
might be destined to follow in my grandmother's footprints....
So I'm really going crazy from staying in most of the time and only running off for food I feel like a scared rabbit hole habitat.
My aunt had this, she survived, she was in the local newspaper, considered a miracle. She died 2 years ago, 2 weeks after her 100th birthday!!
Wow! Glad to hear she made it to 100! I'm guessing there was some kind of festivities. That's the ultimate milestone.
❤
This was my mom and I just found a picture from the Kent County Tuberculosis Society. Stated she was tested at school in 1933 and tested positive. She was sent to the Sanatorium for a long stay. She did well even with the lung treatments that she said hurt something awful. She was cured, married and had 3 children and lived to be over 100 years of age
Praise God that’s wonderful! She made it through all that and lived a full life!
Bless her heart!
My Beautiful grandmother, mother of 6, was diagnosed with TB about 115 years ago. At the time she was living in NY. My loving grandfather found a 200 acre farm about 21/2 hours drive from his work in NY. He moved his family there and continued to work in the city and to farm. I remember going to the bus station on Friday nights to pick him up and again on Sunday nights for his trip back to NY. During the week he lived with his relatives. My grandmother lived to be 94 or 95. I am 79 and still treasure my grandfather’s loving concern for his “bride”.
Such a lovely story. Thanks for sharing that.
Thank you for sharing. It's a beautiful story.
That is an excellent example of unconditional true love. Thank you for sharing :)
Well that story shows to go ya,,, It ain't love, until you give it away or exercise it... Granpa loved his wife, so he kept her well, you know that required some effort & loss of self. Granpa was a great man, for a great woman. Thanks for the story.
Thank you for sharing your story!!!
My dad had TB when he was a kid and was one of those who spent a year in the sanitarium at Saranac Lake. He recovered and lived to be 92. The Adirondacks became one of his favorite places to hunt, fish and vacation. He and my mom got married in Lake Placid in 1949. God Bless my wonderful parents. 🙏💜💜🙏
I visited Saranac Lake in 1969. It's a lovely place. The cure of TB caused a decline in the local economy because people no longer came to the area to enjoy the clear, mountain hair. The disease was so prevalent that my county had an entire hospital dedicated to the care of TB patients.
We moved from Cincinnati to Phoenix Arizona in 1949 for my mother's health. The dry desert air also cleared up my asthma.
Ardith She be careful of "valley fever" in Arizona...also a lung disease caused by something in the soil, they have a lot of dust storms there. Personally knew someone who lost 1/2 of one lung to valley fever while living there...
My mom had Valley Fever! She lived in Henderson Nevada. That's close to Las Vegas. She had to see a infectious disease doctor. She worked in a Casino in the money cage. Valley Fever is related to TB. She could've caught it from foreigners.
@TATTOO VAMPIRE1966 I've had lung problems all my life and still don't know if dry or moist climate is the best. Someone advised me taking a pneumonia shot. It helped tremendously with my chronic cough
@TATTOO VAMPIRE1966 Maybe it's part age and particular affliction plus the atmosphere-air and humidity, all together. I haven't suffered near what you have. But I learned to cope with all my afflictions while taking state of the art meds and do very well. Check out hacres.com.
@@carpediem6568 I was always sick from the various chest, sinus, and throat problems from childhood on... When I was 50+ I had My first pneumonia shot. That year was the first year I didn't have a cold for the whole winter. That shot helped me for about 5 years and I got sick again. I went to a clinic WITHOUT THE RECORD I HAD ALREADY had that shot and had another. I am 65 now and I haven't had a cold for 2 years. If You are sickly with upper respiratory problems this definitely helps!
My grandfather had TB and he, my grandmother and my mother lived for a YEAR in a tent during the depression on the banks of the Shenango River so he could get well. LUCKILY it worked and he lived another 35 years.
My grandmother was quarantined when she had tuberculosis, but we were so blessed that she made it. I would not be here if she hadn't. My mother was not born til a few years after she had gotten better.
When was that? My great aunt was quarantined in the late 60's. Not so very long ago when you think about it. She survived too. My grandmother used to visit her but had to leave the kids in the car. Can't do that now either.
Kris Niznik It was late 30's or early 40's, before 1943 for sure.
@@rhon715 Interesting. This sanitarium was converted out of old naval hospital barracks. They just tore them down about 10 years ago but they were empty for a long time before that. Now people just live their lives, many on the street.
rhon715.
rhon715.
My grandmother died of TB. My mother was 4 years old. She was raised by her mother's cousin. When I grew up, I studied nursing. After I graduated, I worked a full time hospital job. I also moonlighted at other hospitals with my agency job. I could make a few dollars more if I accepted a job at the TB/HIV hospital.
Mom forbid me to work at the TB hospital. She was terrified that I'd catch TB. She didn't want to lose me. I declined the position. My colleagues teased me. I told them that I couldn't take a job that would cause my mother to be afraid.
In 1976, I was working on a med surg floor. Towards the end of June, we admitted an old man with pneumonia. He was in my zone for the entire summer. Mid August, I got sick, high fever, nothing on my chest xray, but recovered inside of a week. I developed a chronic bronchitis which was always made worse when I got a cold. 16 years later, when I needed surgery, a routine chest xray showed an opacity in my right upper lobe. Repeat skin tests showed me to be TB positive. No one picked up anything on my annual physical xrays for 16 years. I took INH for an entire year. I developed asthma in 2012. I moved from NJ to Arizona, and no longer need any medication for asthma. I still get a routine chest xray every year....just in case.
aliyamoon80 Good for you!
@Terri Mansfield A patient can have as many diseases as he pleases. A person can have both TB and HIV.
We should all be grateful for every day of life we have. It can all be gone in an instant.
Alexis amen 🙌🏿🙌🏿🙌🏿
Sunny Smiles true
What if your life is total shit why would you care?
Anna Vajda Jesus Christ died for you because He loves you. He can give your useless life meaning. He did for me.
That actually would be great if it was all gone in a instant, this place is suffering from start to finish
TB is considered endemic in rural parts of Alaska and in Hawaii. I previously worked in healthcare in Anchorage and we had to be tested for TB yearly, as each year there’s 50 or more new cases in Alaska. This illness isn’t gone. It’s not a third world illness.
aliccolo --- I worked in infection prevention here in Southern California in 2009.
TB is considered endemic in Mexico. Because we are close to the border, we get TB cases coming across ALL THE TIME. Mercy Hospital in downtown San Diego has at least one, if not 5 TB patients in hospital at any time.
And yes, due to DNA testing, we know where they come from: Mexico, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Eritrea. We can differentiate very accurately which country each of the TB cases came from.
There is a TB vaccine, but it is not very effective, and causes the recipients the test POSITIVE when given the TB test here (known as the 'Mantoux' test). Vaccinated individuals require a chest x-ray to determine if they really have TB, have had it in the past, or not.
Multi Drug Resistant TB is a real danger....and it did not originate here.
It is considered a third world illness b/c in the first world countries, people who work in a public-contact venue here are required to be tested for TB before being cleared for work. I don't know if, in the future, schools will require TB testing before admission, but at the rate we get immigrants, testing before admission to school should be required, if it isn't already. Public Health should be doing exactly what the name implies, protecting the health of the public.
But you wouldn't consider having the vaccine if you work closely with TB patients, rather than being tested? If you get TB it could be quite serious. Isn't prevention the smarter option? Preventative medicine. I'm not sure if you were actually caring for known TB patient from your post however. Do you mean that all healthworkers, whether or not they worked closely with TB sufferers were tested? I have worked with TB patients ( Australia, I'm an Aussie) and I was vaccinated as a result. The vaccine is really quite effective enough. I never caught TB, but a couple of nurses who weren't vaccinated did.
@@ingridclare7411-- The TB vaccine is not approved (or available) here in the USA. All health workers are tested yearly for TB, whether they work with TB patients or not
Wow its eary to me, My cousin caught TB as a young child in 70s in Greece, The doctors sent him to live in the mountains for 5 months. He survived and thrived. He is married now with 5 kids.
Nikoletta I test positive for TB and have to get chest x-rays to show I don’t have active TB every time I do volunteer work with a new organization. It’s been suggested I came in contact with it in my late teens working in West Philadelphia around 1999/2000. It’s still around the US in areas extremely lacking resources.
@@JenniferDaniels909 Oh wow, I hope you don't ever have to suffer from it. Its a very uncomfortable thing to have. xx
Nikoletta thanks, I think I have developed natural immunity because I came in contact with it and didn’t get sick, but that’s not a guarantee from doctors reactions.
@@JenniferDaniels909 In the 1950s and 60s and later in England schoolchildren were given the BCG (anti TB). First they were tested for TB and if they were clear they got the full injection. As a result TB virtually died out so the Conservative government of Maggie Thatcher discontinued the programme. Since then, migrants have reintroduced TB and it is spreading.
When I had the test I was positive for TB and was sent for a chest X-ray. The X-ray showed the characteristic signs of TB but my immune system had beaten it off.
I'm pretty sure that I caught the bug when my father overwintered seed potatoes under my bed since they were covered with a layer of earth from his allotment. Thanks dad!
Terry Shulky oh wow, wouldn’t have thought you could come in contact with it from soil. And I see we grew up in very different places :) I tested positive for it before the age that I could get the vaccine - I had volunteered as a candy striper in a hospital in New York before I was technically old enough to do so and so I somehow wasn’t tested until the next year when I went through the official volunteer process so may have come in contact with it then. (Years before volunteering in Philadelphia.) My mother died a long time ago so no one to ask for the proper timeline. I just know now I always need chest X-rays to show I don’t have TB.
These stories make us feel like we are witnessing these events. How amazing that Mr. Trudeau discovered how to treat his consumption symptoms. Thank God for Fresh air.
The mountains with a lot of very big pine trees are a very healthy place to live. Unfortunately, I live in North Carolina and would love to live in the mountains but when you go there the pine trees are not like the ones in the Northeast. The tallest mountain on the East Coast is in North Carolina and when you drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway and go to the top you see how scraggly all the pine trees are because of pollution coming from the West the Blue Ridge Mountains are a buffer and take the Brunt of all the horrible pollution. Still, I love it there. I was there last month I wish I could stay forever but my family is here in the Triangle
Visiting the desert or higher altitudes was often prescribed for lung problems, tb, bronchitis, etc. In the 30s my mother couldnt shake a cold so dr recommended a desert vacation. They went from LA to Palm Springs for 2 weeks. Very poor during the Depression, stayed in a cheap motel. Came home cured.
Who else is watching this in the middle of the corona pandemic?
"They" suggested that I watch it,lol.
here because of same reason- 1 out of 7-
is this CV 1 out of 3 ?
seems diseases become worse with the centuries.
FRIGHTENING. STRESSFUL.
@@mmcken3354
No not even close.
@@mmcken3354
The bubonic plague was 1 out 3 and killed over 200,000,000
@@mmcken3354
CV is about 1 out of 66,000. Back in 2009 the swine flu was 1 out of 34,000 which had almost twice as much death as CV now.
I am watching it to remind me how terrible other pandemics were
My grandmother died at 35 leaving 9 children. Her sadness and depression came from the thought of leaving her children, not death. In those days women suffered leaving children because early deaths were common. How sad...
How cruel and sad, dear Violet !!! 😢😢😢😢
9 kids by 35? Holy shit. Poor woman’s body was probably torn to shreds.
My great grandmother died at a similar age of 'English cholera' (?), leaving six children. My grandmother was the eldest at 16 and went on to raise her siblings, a remarkable woman.
@@deanwinchester3356 In the past there wasn't any birth control. Women married very young because of short life spans. My grandmother was 15 and had her 1st child at 16. She also had 2 sets of twins! Truthfully, I doubt women wanted large family but the times forced them into this unfortunate situation.
Violet Gruner I'm sorry. However, no woman needs to just keep on getting knocked up endlessly. I know the Catholics did based on their religious belief. But there was a murder case recently which featured
a witness who had brought seven children into the world, but she was such a truly sorry person that all but two of the kids were shipped out
for relatives to raise. Then you have the Welfare Chicks who breed
like rabbits because they know their checks will grow with each additional child! And you have the people who just love children and happily have the money to raise them well. But still - I would never
do it!
Consumption is what they called it throughout the 19th century .
Edgar Allen Poe's wife died of it
Linda Easley Chopin died of consumption as well.
@@DreamingCatStudio Keats also died of consumption. At theage of 25.
Its also what caused John Henry "Doc" Hollidays death
@Tuk Tuk Probably because it consumed a person's health.
@Tuk Tuk It consumed you from the inside out.
In England they built a huge hospital on the Isle of Wight just for TB patients. Row upon row of veranda's where the patients were exposed to the fresh sea air. The air in the cities was so putrid they did'nt stand a chance of recovery. Many did'nt return but some survived. Its now a beautiful park but some say there is an atmosphere of sadness about the grounds.
How interesting! I didn't know that. Amazing some survived, maybe it was the " air". Wonder where we would find that now, if needed. Sounds at least like a lovely place to recuperate, or..... spend your last days. Thx for that info!
I would like to look that up. No one I know had TB...but, my grandfather died at 29 of that 1918 flu epidemic! Hmmmmm, now we are facing about the same!
Who'd of known that?
@@Melinda8162 Your Welcome! The hospital was in Ventnor on the Isle of Wight. We had two uncles who became ill in the 1930's. Sadly both died. No idea if they were sent to the Hospital from London which also had a couple of "Chest" hospitals. Yes, we are now facing these terrible pandemics again. Stay safe.
@@vintagebrew1057 Thank you! And, hope you are in a safe place too!
And Stonehouse (I think) in Gloucestershire.
@Tia J The hospital scenes in "Alfie" were filmed at York House and gardens in Twickenham, Middx. One of my favourite films. Found the info on the Reel Streets website.
My paternal grandfather's first wife died in North Carolina at a TB sanitarium. She left behind five children, the oldest only 16. My grandfather quickly remarried so they'd have a mother; however, my grandmother was only 18 - just two years older than the oldest child. Plus, she had mental health issues that plagued her entire life. Those poor children not only lost a mother; they also gained a stepmother who wasn't cut out to be a mother.
Sylvia Ross that's so sad
Lord that's so sad .
My Grandmother passed from TB in the 1950's. The stories my dad told me about her demise we're brutal!
Diana Riley ...my father in laws, own father died at 35 years old...round 1933 or 35. Not exactly sure...as Pops didnt say much. Rest both their souls...HBN, 1928 to 1996. Truly, I loved you, H loved you, Danielle. Now Mom is with you both, with you all. As are my own parents, AJD n HMBD in 97 n 05. Much love, we miss you and God rest your souls,Beloved Parents....We will See You On the Other Side. When It Is Time. As Our Lord Wills. And Our Bodies Die.
My grandmother lost almost all of her family. My mother still has a positive test but she never developed the disease thank God!
My great grandfather had TB in the late 1920s-mid 1930s. He was in and out of sanitariums during this time, eventually being "cured" after an extended stay in Saranac Lake, New York. My mother picked it up because he lived with them while not in treatment. She never had any symptoms, her body fighting it off. To this day, Mom, age 94, comes up positive on a TB test. My grandmother never had it despite having had the Spanish Flu in 1918. (It seemed people who survived that flu gained some sort of resistance to TB.)
The Spanish Flu was reputedly spread by unused 'flu vaccinations left over from WW1.
@@chasleask8533 You're kidding, right? It's just that I've heard stuff from anti-vaxxers nearly as stupid. So just in case you were not kidding: THERE WAS NO FLU VACCINATIONS IN WWI. Spanish flu killed something like 50 million people--thats _50 million_. While the flu vaccine they make up each year these days can't promise you no flu, that is because there are sometimes dozens of different strains roaming around infecting people, and they have to guess which 3 will be the most prevalent months before flu season so they can manufacture the vaccine.
And even though the flu vaccine can't promise you complete protection from all the different flus running around in any give year, you should still get it, every year. Why? Roughly 80,000 people died of influenza in the US in 2018, the worst year in decades. Thirty thousand a year is a more usual number. It's not perfect, but it might just save your life.
@@otrame You need to check your information buddy. Greece had no Spanish flu because it did not take up America's generous offer of its vaccine. That's how the scam was discovered.
@@otrame There was no flu vaccine until the late 30's early 40's. In fact, the influenza virus wasn't discovered until 1930. How a vaccine for a virus that wasn't even identified in 1918 spread Spanish flu is quite a stretch even for the anti-vaxer/conspiracy fringe. Where do they get this stuff?
I have researched the influenza of 1918 extensively. My library is packed with books from the most reputable docs and scientists. That flu did not originate in Spain. It began in our own heartland. It spread like wildfire. It is believed to have been transmitted by a young man who contracted it on his farm and took it to the camps during WWl. Scientists say it was contracted from poultry and is definitely air borne. The reason it was named "Spanish Flu was because it was first published in a newspaper in Spain. Other parts of the world and esp the US were not permitted to write about it. Spain was loose and they wrote about everything. There are many good books on the subject. I started my research with a book by Laurie Garrett called "The Coming Plagues ";She is an excellent Investigative Journalist . It was in the mid 80's when I first began my Flu journey. Intriguing to say the least. She has a new book out called "Ground Zero which is equally as intriguing.
My grandfather died of it. He came back from World War I after he was exposed to mustard gas. And then he worked in coal mines. He died on my mother’s 12th birthday. I teach this. So others remember. So I remember. So my children remember. If we do not remember for the future, they have nothing to remember it all.
How ironic that this popped up on my phone today, April 2020 , stay safe everyone everywhere 🙏
Same here ..Stay safe Marcia❤💪
trying- but it's difficult
peace to everyone & thanks
Thanks, you stay safe too.
Same for me.
Not ironic, it's called fear porn
Turberculosis left such a deep mark that my great aunt used to take me to get regular tb tests even in the late 60's and early 70's. By then I think TB was rare.
As a teacher, I've taken numerous TB tests over the years.
Got exposed to TB while in nursing school....several years later a positive skin test revealed the extent of the exposure. I was determined to be a "PPD converter", a carrier but no active disease. I spent a significant amount of time on INH, folic acid, and vitamin B. Still a converter, but healthy after all these years. I was 19 when exposed, and 65 now.
Similar story here. Was exposed while working at a huge retirement community. I had to go through the CDC for medications & tracking. I have a history of asthma & now I also have blood clots in my lungs all the time-more meds for that. Scary stuff.
What many people don't know anymore:
In the past, tuberculosis was often transmitted by (cow) raw milk.
My grandparents had a farm in Rhineland-Palatinate/Germany until the early 70s. I can still remember that there was a sign on the stable door - This stable is tuberculosis-free.
And it was checked regularly.
To this day, many older people do not drink uncooked or unpasteurized milk. Because they still know what the consequences can be.
When I was young, the wrappers on sticks of butter carried the assurance "FROM TUBERCULIN TESTED HERDS".
Hmm I never knew that, very interesting 🤔
We lost some a cow and calf that had to be killed. The vet said it would spread and the other cows were not yet affected. Even after the two infected animals were gone, he recommended moving their pasture for a time and luckily there was a barn in our back pasture we used for injured animals to keep them from being jostled.
Don't drink cows milk,period.
Yep. I think if you look closely packaging will say tb tested herds.
My great grandmother on my father's side died of tuberculosis at 32 years of age in July, 1918. She left my great-grandfather with three small children. He never got over her death.
This was in 1918. I could imagine how medicine was back then. Very limited
My paternal grandfather died of TB in 1941, not long before the introduction of streptomycin, that might have saved his life. He was only 41 years old. My grandmother had it, too, but survived. I never knew him because I was born in 1950.
Thanks so much for this video. I know very little about this period of American history, and this disease that took my father's father when my dad was only 17 years old.
My maternal grandfather died of TB in 1941 as well. He was only 36.
My Dad was born in Ireland in the year 1907. He told me of his best school mate. On a Friday they walked home together and said goodbye at his friends gate. The next Monday when he went to pick him up he discovered that he and several members of his family had passed away from TB. It must have been unbelievably tragic and frightening.
One more reason to not be an anti-Vader.
I hate autocorrect, vaccer
@@maryelizabeth6797 Lol, autocorrect comes up with the funniest inserts. I love anti-Vader though, I think I should use that from now on, made me smile!
I have the TB antibodies along with a few members of my family. My dad had full blown tuberculosis after he was being treated by a quack of a doctor. For 2 months he was losing weight, loss of appetite, coughing up blood and night sweats. He survived, but it was crazy times. This was in the mid 90s.
My friends mother was sent to a sanatorium when she was 3 yrs old. This was in 1954 she was 6-7 when she could come back home. She remembers not knowing her mother when she came home. And for awhile it was like living around a strange, but it straighten out and she became mama again. TB was fairly common in the 40s and early 50s you would hear it talked about. In the 60s 70s seldom and finely not at all.
I remember I had to have a TB test to volunteer to work at a senior living facility in early 1980’s. Just crazy…
I'm an old man. As a child, I would listen in on conversations by adult family and their friends about the old days. Frequently they would talk about people, and if speaking of their passing the reason frequently given was "TB." You never heard of "tuberculosis" ... The disease was always referred to as TB. TB hospitals dotted the landscape; my location had both a city and a county hospital.
When we were around seven years old, early1950's, one of my best child pals and I would get on our bikes and ride down the street around the corner to the convenience store for a big dill pickle each. The contest was to see who could finish the pickle first as we rode back home. But, always, across the street back in the thick stand of pine trees we viewed a long, one-story, white-framed building with large windows, one for each room spanning floor to ceiling. We knew not to go onto the grounds and I remember seeing no one out and about.
It was a "working" sanctuary for people with TB which carried on its duties most quietly and unobtrusively for about a decade when the facility was demolished and the grounds turned into a park.
Did a Paper on TB in high school. Remember reading that Tuberculosis tumors-nodules were found in mummies.
Interesting. Psilocybin mushrooms were found there preserved in honey , as well.
Wow!!
carpe diem Wow!
@@nancyayers6355 I actually, for some reason left that out of the paper I turned in. But, I told another teacher, who read my assignment, about it. He said, "That would have added a lot to your story." From that comment, I learned how to write, as well as how to study.
My father died of TB in 1950 and my mother had half a lung removed in 1954. They found she had TB again in 1975 and they treated her with antibiotics but they also found she had Schleraderma which took her that spring. The four children have been TB free so far, I remember having to go in for chest xrays every year as a kid..
I’m so sorry that you all went through that. It must have been very hard and scary for you. I really hope that you all remain healthy in your family now and if anything happens that modern medicine will be able to help you.
Thank you for the kind thoughts, out of 4 kids there are two of us left. I'm 72 now and in reasonable health, I think one thing that has kept me on the right side of the grass is I never smoked, back in the 50's everybody smoked.
TB killed a lot of people in the 40's and 50's, modern antibiotics almost wiped it out till some aids related variants proved drug resistant.
Wow, so sorry. Schleraderma is an awful disease...
dell177.
Many thanks for this documentary. There aren't enough people alive today who remember what a scourge it truly was. Three of my mother's uncles died of it as young men. FWIW they lived in the outdoors, natives of the Dakotas. I remember visiting the family home, where she still wouldn't allow me to go into the attic (as kids sometimes like to explore) for fear that there might be some danger - so many years later.
My grandmother died from TB in 1934 at the age of 27 in north central Texas...she had 3 daughters... one was my mother...
Never got to meet her or know her...
Sad, I actually knew my great grandmother; she died at 104, and I was a pall bearer as an adult.
Same here, but both my grandmothers. I never knew them either. ...:((((
Ingrid Clare so sorry to hear that
My father was ill with tb for 5 years from the age of 19. He was one if the first human guinea pigs tested with the new antibiotics and survived. He married at 27, had 5 children and lived to 82. However, he was haunted by the memory of all the other young men who died one by one in his ward.
One innovation made to try and combat the spread of TB in the West as it was settled is something many people associate with spitting out chewing tobacco but was actually devised to give TB patients a place to spit out the sputum TB caused and hopefully minimize the risk of accidentally infecting friends and neighbors. The common spitoon was developed for use in saloons for that purpose. The spitoons contained an antiseptic ring around the rim to further diminish the chance of accidental infection.
🤔
Very interesting. Thanks.
That is fascinating, thank you !
My grandfather lost a lung and half his stomach to tuberculosis. He wasn’t able to fight in wwii because of it. I remember as a child going swimming with him and he having scars all over his chest and abdomen. He was lucky.
My Mom lost half of her lung. And still kicking today. 77.
crazydougfam TB was always around during my early life and I have lung scars to this day which cannot be explained from then.
This should be shown to schools. Interesting.
I love
JRRnotTolkien Bullsh@t
My grandmother had TB and was sent away so her kids didnt get it and my grandfather couldnt take care of the kids that's when my mother and her siblings were sent to orphanage, my mom has always tested positive for TB but never had the sickness, my mom always spoke with love of her time in orphanage, she said her dad would take the kids to see their mother and say hi through a screened porch!
Good to hear there were good orphanages too. My mom was schooled by friendly nuns :)
I was in a foster home when I was 14 years old and my foster family's son was 24 in 1978 and he had Tuberculosis. He eventually died from it in 1980 but this disease has not been eradicated it's only been suppressed. This happened in Sault Ste Marie, Michigan in 1978 and that hasn't been that long ago only what 40 something years?
My grandmother had TB. She spent over 5 years in a santorium. She had 1 of her lungs removed as well as a number of her ribs. She lived for several decades before she died. 🇭🇲🇭🇲🇭🇲🇭🇲🇭🇲
My God, from that one disease alone, perhaps a BILLION people have suffered and perished.
Life has sure got a boat-load of
obstacles. Makes me think
about how incredibly tenuous
life is, just to start with.
All these comments are great !
Somehow my family were lucky we had no one die of TB or the Spanish Influenza..I grew up in the Mohawk Valley in NY .....maybe where I grew up with the good fresh air saved my grandparents...I grew up near Saranac lake
Seneca lake by where I'm from.
My aunt was originally from Saranac Lake and she had tuberculosis but lived to be 90 something. I lived most of my life in Cayuga county and that is where my aunt ended up raising 8 children and nursing.
My grandmother lost 4 siblings to those diseases. They were hit by TB, and then the flue hit them. My grandmother survived both and lived to 96 y/o.
Hmmmmm, "nature & CLEAN air", what a concept!!!!
Grow up
@MsBizzyGurl DUH! We in modern times (or, at least some of us) understand that "it's a bacterial infection"..
MsBizzyGurl : Liposamal Vit C at high enough levels will cure it.
Soozi inCa exactly
While living in Maine I remember how much oxygen was in the air because of the Monstrous pine trees. We would visit our family in New York and when we hit New Hampshire on the way back our lungs expanded. Extra oxygen couldn't hurt people with lung problems. I'm sure it helped people with TB
During this plague , my great aunt was sterilized ; she was forbidden from having children because she contracted TB. She recovered and lived to 100 yrs old. We celebrated every holiday with her and her husband, my uncle ( who lived to 102.) Uncle Jack remembers how he would stand on a hill across a field from the hospital where she was quarantined and wave and hold up signs. He never got the disease.
This was really interesting, it’s something I’ve never really understood. It was only in recent years I understood that consumption that I’d read about so many times in my old fiction history novels was TB. I was very confused before that. I know a little about it in modern history now, but this little video you’ve provided about it starting out in America and how devastating it was is new to me. I’ll look up the full documentary. Thank-you for sharing.
My grandmother died of TB when my father was just 9 years old. It had gotten into her bones and she was in great pain before she died. 3 of her siblings died of TB before they were 10. One of my uncles spent years in a sanatarium before finally being cured. My father had a spot on his lung. I am 60 now. 25 years ago, I worked in hospital and all new employees had to be tested for TB, which turned positive for me. I did not have active TB, but I had to take medication for a full year. Hard to know where I got it from. However, I later found out that I have an immunodeficiency disorder, leaving me susceptible to germs like TB.
My great grandparents died from TB. There was a lot of TB back then. So tragic and was so shameful then
My Dad had it before much could be done. He survived. And thrived. My Mom had it in the mid 1960’s when drug treatment was available. She was quarantined for 6 months, my sister and I had to be tested by the health department every 6 months. She was fine
A few of my older grand Aunts went to sanitariums in the Adirondacks, I think they All survived. They all became Nurses!!
Liar
@@batheandrelaxinmyshit6344 Truth of those who survived angers you? You are a sad person. Lonely much? Bet you are.
@@trekgirl65 I am a lesbian
I recently came across a family tree for my paternal line going back 14 generations. It seemed common that~ A man would marry, have half a dozen kids; One, two, or three would die, then his wife would die. He would then marry a widow who had had half a dozen kids, one, two, or three had died, then they would have half a dozen together, a couple may not live to maturity. That's why people married young, had as many kids as they could, in hopes that a few would live to carry on. This happened at least three times in my family line. There are a couple instances where one of his sons married one of her daughters < or vise versa >. I understand in Colonial times this was not thought of twice, perhaps even encouraged, although it sounds odd to our modern sensibilities.
They're not related. Still happens today. Nothing weird about marrying someone your not related to. What's weird today is that instead of hooking up with friends or people your close to your supposed to screw strangers you met on your phone.
@@stonesandbones9331 lol
sailorbychoice1 I got my lines all back to the old countries...earliest to come were the French Canadians in 1653, last the Irish in 1870. Also saw the multiple wives and many children some of whom died in infancy or early childhood.
Is it a wonder really that clean fresh air over the smog in a city is good for a lung disease?
Can you believe some doctors used to tell people cigarettes were a preventative?
🤔
Well, Doc Holiday didn't go to London or any of the other hubs of industry and overcrowding. Like a lot of folks, he discovered he'd actually do better in the west. Granted, the booze and smokes weren't healthy. But various opiate concoctions could be had in even modest sized towns and those did help a bit with symptom relief.
Tell that to TRUMP.
someone told me Wyatt Earp later moved to Boston and passed away there in 1967 🤔
My grandmother died of TB in Germany in 1940 during a time when there really was no cure and during war times. I feel sad that I never got to meet her and in most of the photos I see of her she was laughing and full of gaiety. Those photos of my mother at the age of 3 with her remaining relatives just looked sad and anguished.
That's very sad x
💜
My grandfather had it but fortunately he survived.
That is what my parents talk about. They were in Poland during the war. Later, they were vaccinated. It was approximately 1946 when my parents were vaccinated. My father was vaccinated in school. They lined all the children up to give it to them, same needle until it got dull from several injections.
So very sad!
That is how the city of Albuquerque grew. Due to the TB sanatoriums.
Yvette Evy Eve Garrett That's also how TB was brought to that area and infected other people.
I remember going to a sanarorium to sing Chrisrtmas carols. A peds nurse I first worked with had to go a sanatorium. Laws are still on the books that if you dont take the treatment to stop spread you can legally be kept in your house, going nowhere. It never goes away ,it only gets halted so patients are taught to watch for sx if they were weakened by another disease. And isnt always in lungs. One case of spinal tb and one in urinary tract. Harder to detect these.
I had a great uncle who contracted TB in France in 1918 in the trenches. He returned from war to Illinois then moved to Albuquerque for his health. He eventually died there in Dec. 1928.
Phoenix has an area that was once a tb patient area
Unfortunately, we have now Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains that have developed resistance to antibiotics
My mother lost her father to this disease when she was 7 yrs old, and a daddy’s girl. Affected her terribly. She died a raging alcoholic at the age of 42. 😢
I'm sorry that this happened to you.Good luck in the future.
I've always loved to read biographies and noticed that a lot of famous writers died of T.B. An it is noticeable that so little is made of it; mentioned only in passing in relation to how famous the person was.
And this proves vaccines save lives.
U.S. does not vaccinate for TB.
ReenyNY That’s because we eradicated it. We do test for it. My mother has encapsulated TB.
Should do more screening. You have said the most sensibile thing and that Vaccines Save lives!
@@ReenyNY When did it stop? I was vaccinated against it in 1974 in Australia as I looked after some TB patients. Its an effective vaccine. I knew 3 nurses who caught it due to not being vaccinated. Apparently in America you guys don't vaccinate health workers who are actively caring for TB patients, America just tests them regularly with the Mantoux Test. Then if a health worker tests positive, they are then treated etc. This is pretty wild and more expensive. We still vaccinate healthworkers who care for TB patients, though a few states are using your system, but actually doctors here don't approve of it. If I wasnt vaccinated I wouldn't work in a TB ward. In the 80's Australia had v few TB cases, due to mass screening/mass xrays etc and prompt treatment of those found to have TB but its steadily increasing now due immigrants from areas when TB is endemic. Frankly, its a bloody nightmare. www.nps.org.au/australian-prescriber/articles/bcg-vaccine-in-australia
I took all the vaccines in the 60’s. They weren’t dirty with dangerous adjuvants, heavy metals and aborted fetal tissue like today. Some of the vaccines are dirty today and the CDC’s own records say 60% of people that took the MMR vaccine were damaged by it. Dr. Ben Carson said some vaccines you need (smallpox, polio, etc...) and some will hurt you. Bill Gates said they are going to reduce the population by 90% using vaccines.
Back in the 1990's, there were cases of TB in men who lived on the street. Now there's a TB outbreak in Alabama. It's impossible to figure out why, because the people who get the disease aren't always living in closed spaces. I never got the BCG vaccine, but I never got the disease.
That's why you used to get Fined for Spitting on the Sidewalk!
Nowadays, nobody even bats an eye if you take a dump on the sidewalk.
@James Alexander , I never knew the reason behind that old law until now. Thanks!
It's a disgusting habit. The fine should continue.
@@dontaskmeimjustagirl...5798 Medieval behavior will lead to medieval disease. Thank your local homeless, and "safe" drug injection centers advocates. Not for "helping people", but for politically intercepting, and crushing every sensible measure put forward to protect the public.
Coral Allan, does it make any sense at all that Los Angeles has quarantined healthy college students who merely cannot prove immunity to measles, YET they don't do jack friggin' squat about the disease-ridden squalor surrounding the homeless encampments?????
There were so many communicable diseases that took lives, before antibiotics and immunizations became common. TB was still being fought during my lifetime here in Canada, in the 60’s mobile chest X-ray trailers screened for the disease.
Older hospitals (and TB sanitariums) were built on hills for that reason - air thougjt to be better. Plus it got you out of the smog from coal fires.
Of Course Yes my in-laws said the coal smoke pollution was truly awful in their village growing up. Respiratory illness not rare.
Most people received treatment too late. Sunshine, fresh air, good diet and rest were enough to stop the progression in many cases if treated early. Unfortunately, crowding, A very long work week, poor diet and childbirth in close succession all contributed to disease spread. Few people had the funds and foresight to turn immediately to bedrest, fresh air, good diet and sunshine. It's very sad that urbanization led to the death of so many. Most people could fight the TB bacteria, as long as they were not exposed to excessive stress.
I wonder how much of the "fresh air " was getting out of buildings and shaded city streets and into the vitamin D generating sunshine? Could Vitamin D supplements have helped save lives back then?
Interesting theory.
Fran Tabor Definitely something to think about. You rarely saw a natural redhead with TB you know why?? I didn’t but now it makes me think. As redheads we produce our own vitamin D since we burn easily out in the sun. Makes a lot of sense.
@@kaylamesser5733 I knew redheads burned easily, but did not realize you produced vitamin D more readily. It would be interesting to know what other diseases you redheads are more resilient to, perhaps that more than made up for the occasional sunburn?
@@friendlyone2706 The darker you are, the more sunlight you need to get enough vit. D. That's something that should be wide spread. It's so easy to take vit.D supplements and with to little vit.D you can get tired, or even depressed. I think it's the main reason why people far from the equator are mostly white.
Yes, thats what my parents were told , when my brothers and sisters were born, we redheads , we are lucky!! This in the 1960's and 80's!😌
Fresh air is great...unless you're allergic to every tree, grass, pollen, dust, etc. Nature can be very unhealthy for some of us, sadly.
I do agree that polluted city air is not good for anybody, not back then, and not today.
@Carpe Diem My allergist suggested I move to 14,000 feet above sea level where I would be above the treeline. Seriously.
I reminded him I also need oxygen to survive. lol
No Tibetan high altitude gene here either! I can't even survive a night in Colorado Springs or Telluride without extreme muscle fatigue the next day lol
Glad to hear the HEPA filters provided relief to your son. HEPA filters do help me at night. I live on Claritin-D 24 hour pills every day, allergy season or not. It's been that way for two decades now. If I stop taking them for a few months, the fatigue is overwhelming. At least now it's no longer a prescription that costs me a couple hundred dollars AND the expense of paying an allergist to authorize the refills.
Apparently, my blood work shows a strong allergy to tumbleweed, too, so my allergist told me to avoid the desert at all costs? lol Of all the things to which one can be allergic, I hadn't considered tumbleweed a high possibility? lol I really dislike the desert, so that was no loss.
Crazy how one's immune system can turn on you. I'm grateful I haven't had to consider a plastic bubble. I've never considered myself to be medically fragile, but these allergies are proving I'm not as resilient as I'd like to be. Rats! lol
@Carpe Diem I need the Claritin itself, not the pseudoephedrine. The "D" helps to offset the fact that the Claritin makes me so drowsy.
Nature is not unhealthy for people. A damaged immune system from our modern unhealthy lifestyle choices, unnatural food processing, and environmental toxins we are exposed to is why we are abnormally allergic to nature.
@@WeRNthisToGetHer Some of what you say is true.
...and nature can be VERY unhealthy. Here are several examples....
...sun exposure (and I'm not even talking about sun BURN, just daily exposure)
...mold
...arsenic
...freezing temperatures
...ocean water
...wild animals
...mosquitos
...parasites
I could go on and on.
However, I do understand what you are saying, it's a valid point, and that can be and is true in some instances.
In my early 20's while I was working as a police officer I tested positive for TB and had to take daily preventive medicine for 6 months. It scared the crap out of me. I'm sure I was exposed to it while working. I'm just glad we now have meds for it and that it wasn't something more serious like HIV.
Hopefully even HIV will get a proper cure one day.
I remember my grandmother talking about ppl w/TB back in the early ‘70’s. In the ‘90’s while teaching Preschool for Regional Head Start in Oregon, many of the children from Mexico & their family members were positive for TB. As staff we were required to take a TB test every Fall when we came back to work after “Summer Vacation”. Bc of the stories my grandmother told as a child, I was always concerned about getting TB bc we were required to go to students homes for “Home Visits”. This was to teach parents how to be the first teachers of their children in the home. This was to link home & school for building the foundation of education in a child’s life. TB is on the rise in the US bc many come to the US from Mexico w/TB. It’s very sad to watch this video & know that the ppl thought it was hereditary instead of realizing that they were sick in the city bc TB is airborne. When one gets away from so many other ppl & breathe fresh air it’s bc the bacteria doesn’t live where their host is away from so many others. It’s vital as well that parents have their children immunized. Many in Mexico are not immunized as children like the children in America. It’s time in the 21st Century that all Countries get on board w/making sure that their citizens are immunized against diseases as children. If we have the prevention there is no reason why that all shouldn’t be immunized in every Country. It’s very very sad that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP Virus) developed a virus in a lab in Wuhan & released it w/o a cure. Then w/held info. for months before telling anyone & spread the virus worldwide causing a pandemic. I believe that they did this to negatively affect the economy of the US. Now they’re telling their ppl that the US started the virus & they’re not allowed to hear any other news than the CCP propaganda. God is still protecting America as we acted quickly after we found out about the virus, saving countless lives from a higher death rate in the US.
My grandmother was born in 1908. She had an uncle that died from TB. He must have been quite a character. She said he had one leg and thought he lost it during the Spanish American War. She learned in her later years that he was drunk and pass out on the train tracks. A train ran over his leg and cut it off. He didn't get TB until he was old. He lived out west and came back to Illinois when he was fatally ill.
Interesting doc. Beautiful scenery shown in the opening of this doc. Doing the family tree i came across ancestors who died from this. its no exaggeration on the way it affected so many families.
My Maternal Grandmother died of TB she was in her mid 30's. She left a husband and 4 young children. My Mother was the eldest of the 4. My Grandmother's Sister also died of TB. I wish I could have known them, wish so much they could have been cured back then. 😢💔
My grandmother died from TB at 32 yrs old. My mom was raised by grandma's sisters....my favorite aunts
I have in active TB .. And I hope and pray it stays that way I got it when I lived in Bethel, Ak
Good luck to you
My mother was a registered nurse and was exposed to TB and tested positive. She was terrified of getting the full disease but she never did. More than that she was afraid for us three children.
My grandmother died from TB in 1933. She lived in southern West Virginia so if fresh air helped she didn't have a chance there in coal country.
Michael Smith ..that’s so sad.
My auntie in Scotland had T.B. in a lymph gland but recovered. A homeopath told me that is why I gave bad lungs. My mother always tested positive for tuberculosis but did not develop symptoms. Have bronchitis every year and pneumonia every yesr sometimes twice a year. However this year no pneumonia or bronchitis! Prayer helps.
@Gubmint Mule113
I am from WV, and not even a drug addict. 👍
@Gubmint Mule113
Good way to thin out the lowlifes. I agree. 🇺🇸
@@billosborn2359
Ok, you are special. I am sure someone somewhere loves you.
I read and I can't remember where (New York Times?) that there was a program somewhere in New Jersey in which health workers paid homeless TB patients daily to go to a location to receive and take their medication in presence of a witness. Every time I ride the subway I want to hold my breath.
Those of us nurses who regularly worked with pulmonary docs were on a list and were tested 2x a year instead of 1.
I caught it working in NYC in the early 90s. End of my career
I worked on the outside of a hospital, and we had a TB scare after several years that I worked there. After that, we were tested every year for it...
Doctors and nurses and staff who work with Tuberculosis and infection are brave and need recognition..Or import nurses from poorer less developed nations.
Ebola in Liberia and Africa was a real scare
My mom was an RN and worked in a TB sanatarium in the 50's in Louisiana. The stories she told of that experience were frightening.
@@janekay4147 even thought I went through treatment It made it harder to be hired with it on my record
My grandfather had TB when he was 16. He survived after a year of fighting
2:35 She talks about how much thinner you look with TB. Then it shows a pic of a woman with TB who is not thin at all!
To me the woman looks gaunt and sickly. Dark under the eyes. In a day when women were much more robust. Nowadays the desired look for women is thin and gaunt as far as the fashion industry goes at least. So this woman appears normal nowadays but not back then.
Has anyone else been told by a family member that TB was responsible for the loss of their eye and/or eyesight? My favorite uncle grew up on a 96 acre farm on Jerusalem Mountain in Mill Creek West Virginia, he had one glass eye and was blind in the other. He stated that he developed TB around the age of ten, and this aided in him losing a lung and his right eye and going blind in the other. His blindness as part of our family’s history is understood to be due to the TB. Does anyone else have a share a similar experience or memory with family?
Growing up in the Phoenix Arizona area, I remember the TB hospital in the area. It never touched anyone I knew.
Was it john C Lincoln Hospital in Sunnyslope?
My grandfather had tuberculosis. He he was born in 1898. Today's his birthday and he's already 123 years old!!! According to him, the doctors told him he will no longer live after two weeks but if you guys can see him at this time, the ol' bugger is still alive and kicking!
RIP in peace Arthur Morgan
Consumption killed my great grandfather 1904..Upstate, NY.. My mother was a nurse in a TB hospital... She spoke of how they wrapped pts up in blankets as they sat on a lg. Porch in the fresh,cold upstate NY air... today,we are tested for TB, prior to certain procedures,meds,lg groups etc..
Our local TB sanitorum is a community center now. It's not that old of a building either, less than 100 years old.
Our TB sanitorium is a psychiatric hospital now...oddly enough,one I got help from when I was 15. I'm studying to become a mental health counselor, and I want to do my internship and be employed there.
My great grandfather died from this. He was only 21 in 1943 and daughter only 6mo when he passed. He was in the civilian corps and he ended up dying in one of their camps.
@@mckenziewright2866 Were the Civillian Corps a nationalist version of the Peace Corps,or was it more like the National Works Projects spawned by FDR to help combat the Great Depression?
I don’t really know much about the Peace Corps. Essentially it was a non-military entity that was similar to the military that men who did not meet draft standards could still join, should they have a medical condition. And at the time they were doing a lot of construction work in rural Tennessee and they served as the construction crews. This is the time when the Tennessee Valley River was damned and a lot of other rivers in the area were as well. (my family is from Davidson County which is Nashville.) essentially it was a way to serve the country as these structures were used as hydroelectric dam‘s that were used in the factories in Nashville. There was a big munitions factory and Dupont was also located there and they built a lot of arms for the military. As well as manufacturing other goods. At this time the south was still recovering from the great depression and this was an easy way for them to get employment in order to support themselves and their families. As the government would hold back a portion of their check to send to their wives or families. due to the nature of these camps that were similar to a military base at the time I believe probably lead partially to his death. Additionally the family said to my grandmother, his daughter that he suffered from a heart condition. But I checked the death certificate and it said tuberculosis. There’s an article on Wikipedia. I don’t care what you say about Wikipedia but it’s a really good place to start research. Because you can use the resources that they list as a starting point.
proud2bpagan yeah it was part of the new deal by FDR. But it is also to help improve development in that specific part of the country. Which was Tennessee did affect that a lot of that state was still pretty rural. If you look into cultural things where they talk about the mining you’ll hear about the TV a authority. Which is Tennessee Valley Authority and they were essentially one of the first power companies in the area. It really changed the area, due to the fact that there was parts of the state were there was not even electricity.
My great Aunt Beatrice died of consumption at her family home in the early 1900's. My grandmother said their mother tended to her in an upstairs bedroom midwinter-- the windows open. Northern Wisconsin winters are very cold. Beatrice was 17. My grandmother often spoke of her beauty.
My father is a carrier for TB, he can't get people sick, and he himself is healthy for the most part. But if given a TB test, it will come back as positive.
My Mum too
@@helengibbs3153 I always thought of him sort of as like a Typhoid Mary only more like TB Daddy only he can't make people sick...and wouldn't try to if he were contagious!
My grandmother had TB in the 1940s and was quarantined for 6 months. She lived back east, I believe in Rhode Island. She survived it along with breast cancer during that time and lived to be 85.
People have forgotten or don't remember TB ....far worse than what we are now experiencing ....
Two of my grandmother’s siblings died of TB. so sad to look at a picture of that family and know that the pretty girl and her handsome brother will die.
Many gravestones had confumtion on them as the cause of death. I didn't know what that was when I was a child. People went from England to Italy in the hope of living longer.
look at old graves in New England, plenty died
My maternal grandfather developed tuberculosis, went to the TB hospital, and lived. However, his wife took up with the postman, resulting in a divorce. I have all manner of half relatives due to this disease. Ain't life grand?
My G -grandmother was orphaned at 7 or 8 in Germany back in 1912/1913 when her whole family died of the flue and was sent to two living aunts hear in the USA. Although she inherited the equivalent of 50 million US dollars in today's money all of the wealth and privilege in the world can not replace a loving family.
Mark says My grandfather came to the United States in 1912, to Ellis Island and was sent back to Norway because he showed positive for TB. His brother had died of the disease in Norway while a college in Bergen. My grandfather came back thru Canada and entered the US thru the pinerys in Minnesota, working there until the great war broke out. Then he joined the war effort, went to fight in France for the US, and became a citizen thru his efforts.
My mother and father met in a sanitarium in 1931. My mother had a horrible scar on her chest form a thorectomy. they collapsed one of her lungs believing the other would become stronger it eventually contributed to her death when she got pneumonia at 35. Mt father swore they were wrong and that he never had TB. He believed that the shadows on his lungs were from Pneumonia as a child. he lived to be 90 years old and out live three wives the exrays were so primitive he could have been right.
My GRANDFATHER died of TB in 1931, his oldest daughter survived. Both infected by raw milk from TB infected cows. Animals on the farm had contracted the desease as well.
My grandfather's little sister died from TB at the age of 4.They lived in W.V.