Short answers, pulled from the story.
Tuberculosis, known colloquially as the white death and historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria. It initially infects the lungs but can spread to other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, a state called latent tuberculosis.
Tuberculosis spreads through the air when people with active pulmonary TB cough, sneeze, speak, or sing, releasing tiny droplets containing the bacteria. People with latent TB do not spread the disease. TB is not spread by shaking hands, sharing food or utensils, or kissing.
In 2024, tuberculosis reached an estimated 10.7 million people and caused 1.23 million deaths, making it the leading cause of death from a single infectious agent worldwide. About one-quarter of the world's population, roughly 2 billion people, have latent TB.
Robert Koch identified and described Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacillus causing tuberculosis, on the 24th of March 1882. In 1905 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery. World Tuberculosis Day is marked on the 24th of March each year, the anniversary of his announcement.
Multi-drug resistant tuberculosis is defined as resistance to the two most effective first-line drugs, rifampicin and isoniazid. It emerged in outbreaks between 1970 and 1990 and requires second-line drugs that are less effective, more toxic, and more expensive. In the UK in 2013, treating MDR-TB was estimated at 50,000 to 70,000 pounds per case.
Drug-susceptible tuberculosis is treated with a combination of first-line drugs such as isoniazid, rifampicin, pyrazinamide, and ethambutol, usually over six months. The antibiotic streptomycin, developed in 1946, made effective cure a reality. Without treatment, about two-thirds of people with TB die of the disease within three years on average.
Tuberculosis was called the romantic disease because for centuries it was associated with poetic and artistic qualities, and a widespread belief held that it assisted artistic talent. Major figures including poets John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Edgar Allan Poe, composer Frederic Chopin, and novelists Franz Kafka and George Orwell either had the disease or lived among those who did.