The U.S. Public Health Service · Episode 15 of 34 · 45 min
Tuberculosis: The White Plague and the Sanatorium Movement
Tuberculosis, the White Plague, was the leading cause of death in nineteenth-century America and had no cure for sixty years after the germ was found. The fight ran largely outside Washington, through Edward Trudeau's sanatorium, the Christmas Seal, and housing reform, until streptomycin emptied the sanatoria in the 1940s and 1950s. The federal service was a supporting player, not the lead.
Who's who
- Robert Koch+4 more episodesGerman bacteriologist who identified the tubercle bacillus in 1882
- Edward Livingston Trudeau+1 more episodePhysician who opened America's first sanatorium at Saranac Lake
- Emily Bissell+1 more episodeDesigner of the first U.S. Christmas Seal
- Selman Waksman+1 more episodeRutgers scientist credited with discovering streptomycin
- Albert Schatz+1 more episodeRutgers student who co-discovered streptomycin and disputed credit
- Elizabeth BugieMember of the Rutgers streptomycin team
Where it happens
- Saranac Lake, New York+2 more episodesSite of America's first sanatorium
- Fort Stanton, New MexicoSite of the first federal tuberculosis sanatorium
- Rutgers University, New Jersey+2 more episodesWhere streptomycin was discovered
Timeline
- March 24, 1882Koch identifies the tubercle bacillus
- 1884-1885Trudeau opens the Adirondack Cottage Sanitarium
- 1899First federal tuberculosis sanatorium opens at Fort Stanton
- 1907First U.S. Christmas Seal launched
- 1943Streptomycin discovered at Rutgers
- 1950sSanatoria empty and close
Still debated
The 'one in seven deaths' figure varies by period and source, and sanatoria improved odds without curing, as TB declined before antibiotics. Albert Schatz sued over credit for streptomycin, which Waksman received the Nobel for.
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