Examinations carried out on mummies revealed
that TB was common even in acient Egypt.
TB: Through the years
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5000 BC
Earliest evidence of human TB found in Neolithic grave near Heidelberg, Germany.
4000 BC
Examination of mummies shows TB was common in Egypt.
460 BC
Hippocrates identified “phthisis” (which means “wasting”) as the most widespread and fatal disease of his time.
1600-1700s
TB, then called “consumption”, reaches epidemic proportions during the Industrial Revolution in Europe, due to overcrowding and unsanitary living conditions.
1854
Hermann Brehmer builds the first sanatorium in Gorbersdorf, Germany, believed to be able to cure TB patients by isolating them and providing them with rest, fresh air and good nutrition.
1882
Robert Koch identifies the Mycobacterium Tuberculosis, the tubercle bacillus, as the cause of tuberculosis in humans.
1910 - 1920
French scientists Albert Calmette and Camille Guérin develop the BCG vaccine.
1944
Selman A. Waksman discovers stretpomycin, the first antibiotic used to treat TB.
1993
WHO declares tuberculosis a world emergency after recognising that one in three people are infected globally.
End 2004
Malaysian scientists hope to develop world's first DNA diagnostic test for TB.