Consumption

Consumption is the historical term for what is today known as tuberculosis, or TB. It would not be called tuberculosis until Johann Lukas Schönlein coined the term in the mid-1800s.

Transmission & Vectors

Consumption, and TB today, was spread through the air via microscopic particles emitted by an infected person's cough or sneeze. The bacteria can continue to live in the air for hours, though in the 18th century they did not know quite that much about it. They did know that the disease passed from person to person via close contact, but the scientific details had not yet been pinpointed.

Causes

Consumption is caused by the inhalation of the bacteria from the cough or sneeze of someone already infected. Though they didn't have as complete of a picture of germ theory as we do today, people in the 18th century still understood that the disease spread from person to person in close contact.

Symptoms

Symptoms of consumption included: a bad cough lasting an extended period, pain in the chest, coughing up blood or phlegm, weakness or fatigue, chills, fever, and night sweats. The infected person also often lacked an appetite and experienced sometimes drastic weight loss. This is where the idea of the disease "consuming" its victims comes from. This is also why it was considered a wasting disease in earlier periods.

Treatment

In an age before antibiotics, treatments for consumption varied greatly. These treatments included: travel to "healthy" locations, various broths, bleeding, tinctures, sweating, and a diverse assortment of medicines. This was also a time before medications were regulated, and many of the remedies used were inconsistent and rarely yielded results. Most doctors and caregivers had their own methods they swore by, regardless of the results because the disease was not well understood at the time. Treatments, therefore, were never standard.

Prognosis

The prognosis of those suffering from consumption in the 18th century was not good. The fatality rate of the disease in the 1700s was frequently 900 deaths for every 100,000 in population per year. Those who did survive the initial infection had lasting health issues and often had recurrences of the disease for the rest of their lives.

Affected Groups

Anyone could be infected with consumption, from the very old to the very young. It struck down otherwise healthy individuals in their youth just as often as it infected the weak and elderly.

Prevention

As a vaccine did not yet exist, the best prevention for ensuring the health of the larger population in the 18th century is to keep infected individuals isolated and away from those who are not infected.

Epidemiology

Consumption is highly contagious. It passes from person to person through the air when an infected person coughs or sneezes. This makes it difficult to control in areas of high populations or in close living quarters. Epidemics can frequently start from a small number of infected individuals.

History

Consumption was a disease with a long history going back through much of recorded human history. Various cultures throughout time have referred to wasting diseases that, while called by different names, were likely all the same disease.

Cultural Reception

Consumption was a highly feared disease because of its high death rate. Anyone could fall victim to the disease, regardless of age, and for that reason it was often referred to as the "robber of youth." Due to the pale complexion of many consumption patients, the disease was also known as the "white plague."

Type

Bacterial

Origin

Natural

Cycle

Chronic, Acquired

Rarity

Common

Sources:

• CDC's TB Site

• The history of tuberculosis: from the first historical records to the isolation of Koch's bacillus (National Library of Medicine)

• The Disease that Killed the Young and the Beautiful (Historynet)