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HEALTH & WELLNESS

YOU CAN

SURVIVE TB

BY CASEY BROWN

At the turn of the 20th century, tuberculosis was of the disease. One can scan across
the decades and pick up well-known
the leading cause of death in the United States. names, such as Kings Charles IX,
In Europe, the level of TB was so high, that many Louis XVII and Louis XIII of France;
King Edward VI of England;
people suffering from the disease moved away Catherine I, Empress of Russia;
Andrew Jackson, 7th President of the
from the cities towards rural sanatoria or to what United States and Eleanor Roosevelt,

were perceived as the favourable climates of distant First Lady of the United States
(1933-1945); novelists DH Lawrence,
colonies, such as South Africa. George Orwell, Jane Austin and
Emily Bronte; and British actress
Vivien Leigh, who all succumbed
he other day, a student today is known as tuberculosis (TB). to TB. Modern day survivors of TB
visiting from Holland asked As opposed to the cold and damp include the late Nelson Mandela
me what was so special conditions in Europe, the fresh air of (who contracted TB while in prison);
Tabout the Karoo. She had the semi-arid Karoo was thought to the late Bishop Desmond Tutu (who
heard that her great-grandmother aid in healing the disease but, without had TB when he was 15); singers/
had come to South Africa specifically proper treatment, recovery wasn’t a musicians Tina Turner, Tom Jones,
to spend time in the Karoo, but after certainty. Ringo Starr, Cat Stevens and local
she returned to Holland, she passed TV presenter and celebrity, Gerry
away. TB DOESN’T DISCRIMINATE Rantselli-Eldon.
While TB might be more commonly
I didn’t say as much, but the chances encountered in poor communities, WHAT IS TB?
are that her great-grandmother was the affluent and middle classes are Unlike COVID, which is a virus,
suffering from consumption – which by no means immune to the ravages TB is caused by a bacterium,
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