John Camarella
Artifact #6
Tuberculosis (TB) has been shown throughout history as a romantic death taking the lives of both the poor and the rich; the famous and the infamous; it sparred no man. This is by far from the actual truth of the disease as it can take many forms, each worse than the variant that proceeds. There is Pott’s Disease where TB attacks the bones causing the victim to become crippled with horrible curvatures of the skeleton; Scrofuloderma, which causes plague like boils to appear on the skin while also appear to rot the skin as well causing deformities in the face or other areas that it may be; Milliary TB, which is the result of a weak or non-existent immune system allowing the infection to spread throughout the body and attack vital organs besides the lungs; and then the traditional TB that attacks the respiratory system causing the victim to spit up sputum containing the bacteria itself (Powerpoint Slides). In addition, these have variants in themselves as being just the regular TB disease, Multi-Drug Resistant (MDR) TB, and Extensive-Drug Resistant (XDR) TB. In the order listed, they become harder and harder to cure while XDR-TB remains on the verge of a miracle to clear up (Film).
The disease is spread through droplets that have been exhaled by the person that has been infected. It has been known to be able to hide in the dirt as well (for example Haiti) where it would infect the person by being kicked up into the dust and then breathed in. Once the person is infected, the traditional case would be that a granuloma would form around the actual infection in the lung tissue where the immune system would try to destroy the infection. Unfortunately, this does nothing as the infection is strong enough to survive the immune system and as the immune system ramps up its efforts to destroy the disease it also takes a toll on the body eventually leading to death (Lecture).
Lots of times, strong immune systems keep the disease suppressed and do actually get rid of it. Countries in Africa where this disease is endemic shows people close up on the other with little personal space allowing the disease to easily infect anyone within breathing distance. A single cough could get the whole bus. This becomes especially dangerous because many of these individuals that live in the poor countries of Africa have others disease like HIV that lower the immune system’s ability to fight off infection. Another example would be the immigrants that were jammed into tenement housing during the late 19th Century allowing for TB to be spread easily due to poor working conditions and overcrowding (Powerpoint Slides). Thus, these individuals become easy victims to the already strong disease. Malnutrition and poverty play a role in this due to the body not being able to obtain the correct nutrition to keep the body operating healthily. Then, proper health care goes out the window when there is hardly enough to pay for basic living (Film).
Revisiting the variants of TB known as MDR-TB and XDR-TB, these came as an interesting develop due to lack of diagnosis or proper treatment. Like it was said before in the above paragraphs, TB is a very strong disease that has the ability to resist the immune system. It is quickly adaptable and if not attacked with constant, uninterrupted care it may become resistant to the drugs that we use to fight it. This was first noted at the end of World War II, as the Streptomycin no longer was able to kill off the infection. Since then, nine drugs have been slowly added over the course of the 20th Century in order to be able to try and kill the ever increasingly resistant TB (Powerpoint Slides). More medication is given in order to allow the person to be able to survive the drugs themselves (Film). If individuals do not keep up their medical care, the disease can easily turn into MDR-TB or XDR-TB making it harder to get rid of and more dangerous to the person. Some may ask why people may not follow through on the treatment plan, but it is not hard to understand due to the effects the drugs can have. As stated above, it is known that drugs the individual is taking have drugs that curb the effects on the person themselves. They can make the person weak, sick, depressed, and so on making the victim sometimes wish that the disease would take its course rather than having to deal with the treatment plan (Film). This is where the disease get stronger and more resistant while also maintain the ability to spread through the air. Thus, the fight becomes harder and harder to accomplish.