Sanatoriums
Sanatoriums became the only chance for survival, as well as the mechanism to reduce disease transmission for tuberculosis (TB).
- The treatment, established by Hermann Brehmer, included institutional isolation where fresh air, rest, and good nutrition served to rehabilitate the patient. Brehmer had experienced a similar cure for his own TB by leaving his home in Germany and traveling to the Himalayas. After presenting his findings in his 1854 medical dissertation, he opened the first sanatorium to treat TB in a hospital in Germany. In the US, Edward Trudeau, another scientist and victim of the disease, established the sanatorium at Saranac Lake in the Adirondack Mountains of New York, where TB research in the U.S. first began.
- These institutions served to isolate patients from the general population, allowing the person-to-person transmission to rapidly decline while promoting healing and recovery. Although there continued to be patients who did not survive, those who improved were able to return to their homes and resume healthy lives.
Immunization
In the early 1900s, an effort to immunize humans was attempted by two scientists working with an attenuated strain of M. bovis, first inoculated to cattle, horses, rabbits, and guinea pigs. Named the bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine after researchers Calmette and Guerin, the vaccine continues to be protective in children living in high-burden countries of the world.
