Tuberculosis and its Impact on Native Americans

Paper Summary:

The purpose of this paper is to introduce, discuss, and analyze the topic of the disease tuberculosis. Specifically, it describes how the white men brought tuberculosis (TB) with them as they colonized America and how the disease decimated the Native American population. It contains specific details about this event, including time-frames and the resulting impact on human history. It also contains conjecture about what would have happened historically had the event not occurred. Tuberculosis is a deadly disease that is making a comeback around the world. When it was first introduced to what would become the United States, it was little understood and uncontrollable.

From the Paper:

"Tuberculosis is actually a very ancient disease, but it was not until 1882 that it was actually discovered, by a scientist named Robert Koch. Before Koch made his discovery, tuberculosis was called many things, including the most accepted, "consumption," which was thought to be a wasting infection that involved the lungs. At the time, Koch's discovery was an important one for all of mankind. In fact, historian Rene Dubos notes, "All textbooks dealing with infectious diseases consider the discovery of the tubercle bacillus as the highest peak of the science of medical microbiology" (Dubos 93). Tuberculosis usually affects the lungs, but it can also have an effect on the intestines, bones and joints, the skin, and the lymphatic and nervous systems, though this happens less frequently than lung problems."

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