Today I learned about the history of tuberculosis. The earliest signs of TB show up in bison remains from 17,000 years ago. Prehistoric humans, Egyptian mummies, ancient Greeks...tuberculosis has been found in all of them. Before the industrial revolution, people with TB were sometimes thought to be vampires, or to be communing with fairies at night, or being turned into horses by witches. The advent of antibiotics and increased public health awareness (no spitting in public, y'all) were what really turned TB around, although plenty of people still get it.
More on tuberculosis later, I'm sure, as I continue reading The Air We Breathe.
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