Sanatoria and mountain air were culture before drugs. Then soil chemistry gave streptomycin in 1944 and combination therapy followed.
WHO's late-20th-century DOTS strategy treated TB as a management problem of completing courses.
Timeline
The bacillus is shown; germ theory gains a famous chronic disease.
Roentgen's rays later let clinics see cavities without opening the chest.
An attenuated vaccine begins a century of childhood programmes.
A soil-microbe drug first hits TB — resistance appears if it is used alone.
Combination oral therapy begins to empty sanatoria in rich countries.
WHO declares TB a global emergency as HIV and neglect reverse gains.
A five-element programme standardizes finding cases and supporting treatment.
Molecular tests and new drugs shorten some resistant courses — still specialist care.
The timeline names turning points, not today's pill list.
Keep exploring
More in Encounters
Influenza
A winter respiratory virus of drift and rare shift — surveillance and vaccines, not a cartoon villain.
Familiarity 93Escherichia coli
Usually a gut resident; a minority of STEC pathotypes drive foodborne headlines.
Familiarity 82Staphylococcus aureus
A common skin neighbor and a resistance story called MRSA — not scare porn.
Familiarity 78Norovirus
A very-low-dose gut virus of schools and ships — soap and bleach surfaces, not alcohol-gel faith.
Familiarity 80Helicobacter pylori
A gastric spiral that rewrote the ulcer textbook — Nobel 2005, Korea's high historic prevalence, no recipes.
Familiarity 68