The History of Tuberculosis from Earliest Times to the Development of Drugs

Abstract

This chapter considers the primary evidence for tuberculosis (TB) in the past-in the remains of people themselves-chart the distribution of the infection through time from a global perspective, and consider historical data for the presence of the disease in the distant past. It examines remarkable new developments from biomolecular analyses of the tubercle bacillus in human remains that are currently illuminating aspects of the history of TB. Tuberculosis is now a conquered disease in the British Isles and the rest of the industrialised world. When historical data are available, they can potentially provide a window on frequency rates of TB, but the numbers of those actually dying from TB may be inaccurate. Scholars studying TB in our ancestors draw on a number of sources. The primary evidence derives from people themselves who were buried in cemeteries throughout the world that have been excavated over the years and that contribute to the understanding of humankind's long history.

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