What do Lous Braille, Eleanor Roosevelt, Eric Arthur Blair (George Orwell), Anton Chekhov, Vivien Leigh, Franz Kafka, John Keats, Frédéric Chopin, Emily Brontë have in common on a day like this?
On the 24th of March, we commemorate World Tuberculosis (TB) day. It’s a day to remember the importance of science, medicine, creativity, innovation…! And the human will overcome any obstacle.
Fig 1. Grunwald Sanatorium, Poland.
In 1863, the first tuberculosis sanatorium was opened for the treatment of tuberculosis.
In 1882, Dr. Robert Koch announced the discovery of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis, a genus of mycobacteria responsible for the disease.
In 1943 Albert Schatz, a Ph.D. student, isolated streptomycin, the first antibiotic cure for tuberculosis.
After 7 years of the discovery, by the 1950s, the sanatoriums began finally to close.
In 2022 "Invest to End TB. Save Lives!" it’s the theme of World’s TB day...
Fig 2. Tuberculosis nodules (“tubercles”) in the lungs.
Health should always be a priority to invest in. Those abandoned tuberculosis sanatoriums around the world remember us from this infectious deadly disease, and after 79 years from the streptomycin discovery, we could think of TB as an invisible threat from our past, a disease that has been defeated after haunting us for centuries.
That’s far from the truth. Still in 2022 TB remains one of the most worldwide infectious killers, and around 4100 people lose their lives each day. Those unknown ghosts could certainly include poets greater than Keats, inventors greater than Braille.
Motic, it’s more than microscopy. Health is our concern, and we play our part in raising awareness of it. We would like to acknowledge and thank all the pathology community, especially the ones who work in infectious diseases, for work made on improving the lives of those who suffer from them.
We do remember: Invest to End TB. Save L I V E S!
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