Tales of TB White Plague of the North

by Winn, William

• ISBN13: 9798350970166
• ISBN10: 8350970162
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2025-03-12
• Publisher: BookBaby

Summary

Though all but forgotten in affluent regions, tuberculosis is an ancient pandemic that presently kills 1.5 million people yearly. It was rampant in the England of 1800 and accepted that 1% of the population succumbed each year to the wasting disease—consumption—a grim reaper that would one day be known as tuberculosis, or more dramatically, "The White Plague."

Seven well-known people of a not-so-distant past left detailed accounts of their tuberculous lives—in their various letters, essays, poems, and biographies. Their surnames are Barrett-Moulton, Keats, Bronte, Poe, Browning, Trudeau, and Stevenson. Although it was most often a disease of poverty, no one was safe from the White Plague. The stories of these talented writers, poets, and their doctors are explored here and portray the variations of the disease and the personalities of its victims.

Beginning with the subject in the well-loved painting "Pinkie" by Thomas Lawrence in 1794 through Robert Louis Stevenson of Treasure Island fame, the book moves into the sanatorium era of the late 1800s and first half of the 20th century. In 1950, medical science came up with several semi-miraculous medications that amazingly cured the worst types of tuberculosis. However, the White Plague has soldiered on, and there have been unexpected happenings that play a role in maintaining mortality: (1) the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) (2) drug resistant tuberculosis (3) the Covid-19 pandemic, which has severely damaged tuberculosis control and reduced access to medication in the less privileged regions of the world.

Will tuberculosis always be with us as a "forever" pandemic?

Author Biography

William Winn is a retired pulmonologist. He is old enough to remember what it was like for those with tuberculosis before there were streptomycin and the other miracle drugs of the late 1940s and early '50s.

Dr. Winn spent his childhood and high school years living on the grounds of a county tuberculosis sanatorium. Unlike the patients who stayed there, he never came down with TB—his skin test has always been negative. His physician father fell ill with tuberculous pleurisy while doing a pathology residency during the Great Depression and was hospitalized for six months. Thereafter, the elder Dr. Winn spent his life caring for people with tuberculosis, becoming the medical director of the sanatorium hospital where his family resided. He shared his name with his son, and his word was law.

When he was five, Billy took a walk with his mother, who had business to conduct. She had
ordered a custom-made dress from Johnnie Cole, an expert knitter and a long-term patient. She told Billy about Johnnie's tuberculosis and what it was. A year or two later, Billy asked her how Johnnie was doing, and she said that he had died. It was 1943. Now the current Dr. Winn—no longer "Billy"—still remembers this young man with White Plague.

Tuberculosis never went away. It still flourishes in the poverty-stricken regions of this world. Dr. Winn has continued his pulmonology education over the last seven years, learning more about tuberculosis while writing this book. He explains why this "forever" will always be with us.