ABSTRACT
Tuberculosis touched the lives of every community and every member within it. Tuberculosis brings both pain and fear. Tuberculosis also debilitated and shortened the lives of millions more. Tuberculosis became a significant killer of indigenous populations only in the early seventeenth century when crowding, malnutrition and unsanitary conditions in the districts where Native Americans lived encouraged the spread of the disease. Miliary tuberculosis may kill infants and young children in days. The growth of industrial societies expanded environmental factors that correlated with the spread of tuberculosis. Tuberculosis spread slowly and patients lived for a long time. Tuberculosis, similar to epidemic diseases, had a high mortality and afflicted cities; but its long incubation and confusing symptoms allowed authorities wrongly to equate it with pneumonia or the common cold. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
