Tuberculosis in America

During the Romantic Age, "it was considered good form to spit blood and die before 30." Keats fit the bill by succumbing to "the consumption" at the tender age of 26, and Lord Byron was a bit jealous but had to settle for a fatal fever a few years later. Like so much else at the time, the popular conception of dying from tuberculosis was romanticized far beyond the reality. The afflicted did not radiantly pine away into the hereafter; they drowned in their own blood. Filmmakers Diane Garey and Lawrence R. Hott have crafted a marvelous (and more than a little frightening) history of tuberculosis in America, tracing the story of the medical profession and public health officials' war against the once epidemic illness from the late 19th century through the present day. Once claiming 25% of the populace, "the people's plague" was combated with a wide array of bizarre cures, ranging from having women smear sulfuric acid on their breasts to having the ribs removed on one side and collapsing an infected lung (one woman recalls that after surgery, she was served spare ribs for dinner--an exceptionally tacky move, even for a bureaucratic institution). Not until the 1940's did the first antibiotic cures start to appear (the "cures" were initially short-lived, due to the bacteria's ability to adapt), and the story of how modern science finally conquered the bug (or thought they did) has all the hallmark traits of a first-class thriller. Today, of course, TB has re-emerged, and public health officials are re-living the nightmares of the 1880's. In 1897, Herman Biggs, NYC's head honcho in the public health department took smart, but controversial, measures to control the spread of TB, including anti-spitting laws (which were, unfortunately, not extended to major league baseball) and incarceration. Nearly 100 years later, people are being "arrested" and placed in hospitals for their own and the public's good--especially since we now face drug-resistant strains of the disease. Narrated by Joe Mantegna, Tuberculosis in America combines a compelling historical narrative with sobering commentary by contemporary physicians and researchers. An outstanding film. Highly recommended. Editor's Choice. Aud: H, C, P. (R. Pitman)