Tuberculosis: The White Death

Tuberculosis has been present in humans since antiquity. Skeletal remains show prehistoric humans had TB, and tubercular decay has been found in the spines of mummies from 3000-2400 BC. Though this deadly disease may have traumatic connotations that infected hordes of people dating back to the early 1900s, today it is on the comeback trail with a wicked vengeance infecting up to one-third of the world's population. In 1905, Robert Koch received the Nobel Prize in Medicine for the discovery of the tubercle bacillus. We will journey through the successes and failures of a man whose legacy has impacted microbiology and infectious diseases to this day. The optimism in 1982 that TB would be eradicated by 2010 is no closer to reality than Koch's announcement of a cure in 1882. The onset of AIDS and the evolution of multi-drug resistant strains of the tubercle bacillus has, in many cases, returned us to the days of when supportive measures in sanatoriums was the only treatment.