'Phthisis'

[SBSFamilyhistory]

One of my great grandmother's older sisters died of 'Phthisis', advanced TB?, when she was 24 in 1870.

As children the had spent time in Uttoxeter Workhouse. Could this have weekened her immune system resulting in her early death.

I understand her husband died shortly before her but I am not aware of the cause of his death.

They had a child aged only 2 when she died but he lived to marry and have children of his own.

Sue X

[Ladkyis]

I would have thought that it would have improved her immune system and given her more antibodies to fight disease. TB is no respector of class or station it would get in wherever it could. My aunt was a carrier of TB which meant that she didn't have it herself but she could give it to everyone. Thank goodness it was discovered when antibiotics were new so she was treated and our whole family checked regularly for years.
None of us caught it and I remember hearing my grandmother say that it was because aunty had made us immune - daft but who knows.

[Peter Goodey]

The Oxford Dictionary of Public Health says:

Those who develop progressive pulmonary tuberculosis are predominantly at the lowest income level, often undernourished and living in crowded conditions that encourage spread. Increasingly, those with progressive disease are persons with compromised immune systems because of HIV disease.

I don't think an earlier spell in the workhouse would be as significant as her more recent living conditions. In any case people entered the workhouse because they would be better off inside than outside.

[kaysii]

TB as mentioned was spread in overcrowded conditions and a workhouse especially if ill-lit could be an ideal place to be exposed to the infection. However there can be no proof from the information you give of where she was infected. TB can lie dormant for a long time. Pregnancy is often associated with decreased immunity and might have precipitated or exacerbated the TB. Some people have been infected in childhood and have no active disease and then in later life when they become old or have other predisposing factors such as being an alcoholic, (HIV as mentioned before), taking steroids, the disease reactivates.

If you can infect other people, you have active disease so I am not sure what Ladykis's family were told. Although a sterile environment is not healthy, exposure to TB is not one of the pathogens that will help improve your immune system.

kaysii

[Mary Anne]

TB spread(s) in places where people live, work, or even travel, closely to one another, and are exposed directly to someone with active disease for a period of time. Usually, it is spread through direct contact with the bacterium from coughing or spitting, or contact with bodily fluids of this sort.

Poor living conditions (malnutrition, poor hygiene, crowding) can all contribute to whether someone who is exposed will actually contract the disease. So can a person's individual immune status (e.g. if a person already has another disease). These things will also influence the progress of the disease, and how quickly a person may recover.

In the 19th century, before the cause was recognized as a bacterium, it was thought that "clean air" could benefit sufferers, so "the cure" often included being sent away to the country for fresh air and a rest. Very probably, for many of those living in crowded conditions, the very fact that they were away from their normal environment helped to effect the cure. For many others, however, this was not the case.

Many people can be exposed to TB and not develop the disease. My mother, when she was a medical student in 1920s Alberta, worked at the Ponoka Mental Institution, where many of the inmates had TB (as well as their mental illness). She tested TB-positive for the rest of her life, although she never developed the disease. I believe this is what was meant when Ladkyis and others were told that someone was a "carrier" -- it didn't mean they could transmit the disease, but rather that they had developed immunity to it without contracting it. I doubt they could pass on their immunity to others, however, but many people felt protected by living with a so-called "carrier".

Mary Anne

[SBSFamilyhistory]

Thanks to everyone who has replied to my thread.

I have been told that my grandmother told my mother that two of her aunts were thought to be carriers of TB and as a result they very rarely saw them.