"If you want to die, I hope I can die of this romantic disease", this is the heartfelt wish of the medieval poet Byron, so the question is, what kind of disease will be considered a "romantic" disease?
The answer is tuberculosis, which was a romantic disease in medieval Europe, but in Asia, it is a demon, and it has the horror legend of "nine deaths out of ten".
Why is there such a big difference in people's perception of tuberculosis? How did it take the lives of hundreds of millions of people by relying on "ten tuberculosis and nine deaths"? Next, let's explore the "white plague" tuberculosis.
1. Strong Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, tuberculosis, they are inseparable from a bacterium called "Mycobacterium tuberculosis", which was discovered by a German microbiologist Robert · Koch in 1882, thus unraveling the mystery of tuberculosis.
What is the difference between Mycobacterium tuberculosis and other bacteria? Let's put it this way, if other bacteria are more stable, want to guard their own one-third of an acre in a relatively stable environment, waiting for humans to throw decomposed food to it, then Mycobacterium tuberculosis is a "volume king", because it is never confined to its own environment.
After being suspended in the air for a long time, the tuberculosis bacillus will try to invade the body and attack the body.
Now, when it comes to the body's immune system, Mycobacterium tuberculosis has encountered a great enemy of other bacteria that try to invade the body - phagocytic cells.
When other bacteria are engulfed and digested by phagocytes, Mycobacterium tuberculosis is very strong, it will not fall into the phagocytes because of the decomposition of phagocytes, it will live in the phagocytes strongly, and even wait for the opportunity to use the phagocytes as its own nutrient supply and continue to reproduce.
When a large number of phagocytic cells do not rupture because they have engulfed Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the immune system sends more powerful T cells to deal with them.
Seeing the powerful T cells, the Mycobacterium tuberculosis also decided not to fight hard, it "honestly" and stood in place, surrounded by T cells, but the Mycobacterium tuberculosis was very determined, and it could not be destroyed by T cells.
T cells are helpless, they break down in large quantities, and hold hands to surround the Mycobacterium tuberculosis, forming granulomas to hold the Mycobacterium tuberculosis in place.
At this point, the tuberculosis bacillus has been controlled, but the hidden danger has also come, but if the body's immune system is damaged a little, and the former T cells are a little lax, then the dormant tuberculosis bacillus will make a comeback, from the lungs to all parts of the human body, bringing an unprecedented disaster to people.
Tuberculosis once made the talented woman Lin Hui sick in bed because of the pain of her later years, and once made Mr. Lu Xun sad in the folk remedies "human blood steamed buns", tuberculosis set off a bloody storm in the mainland, but in Europe in the last century, set off a romantic trend.
2. The Romantic White Plague
With the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, a large number of factories began to recruit workers, and a large number of workers began to appear in the cities, resulting in a large number of residents gathering because of the lack of places to live.
Money is a good thing, it can make a large number of workers live together in order to earn money, even if there is garbage everywhere, even if the house is full of smoke and miasma.
In this way, the Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacillus, which had existed for many years, multiplied in large numbers and entered the body of almost every worker, but the rich areas were not disturbed by it because of the empty living environment and fresh air.
Tuberculosis thus became a "disease of the poor".
In the 19th century, European women began to admire the beauty of white and thin, and they wanted to become fair-skinned, thin, and gentle.
Tuberculosis gave them this opportunity, so both women and noble poets and writers fell in love with Mycobacterium tuberculosis without hesitation.
Because of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacillus, they will be weak and pale, which is fair, and because of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacillus, they will have a low-grade fever and become flushed, which is like a very shy and delicate girl.
The pursuit of beauty made the European aristocracy of the 19th century fall in love with the disease, tuberculosis would cough up blood, which they would call a warm emotion, and the bright red blood even became a symbol of passion in their eyes.
Byron said he wished he could die of the romantic disease, and the poet Shelley praised Keats for saying that tuberculosis was a preference for people like him.
Literature and art, romance, and tuberculosis are firmly tied together, and the "disease of the poor" that was once scoffed at has become a "romantic disease".
Because tuberculosis makes people pale, it is also named "white plague", and "romantic white plague" became the most beautiful name given to tuberculosis in Europe in the 19th century.
But Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which has been prevalent in Europe for a long time, may not have imagined that it would be targeted by Robert · Koch in Germany, discovered by Waxmann in 1943 - streptomycin, and even developed BCG vaccine by Albert · Calmette and Camille · Jielan to inject people with vaccines to fight themselves.
3. Prevention and treatment of tuberculosis
In the early 19th century, rumors that there were no Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacilli in the soil where tuberculosis patients were buried caught the attention of a scientist, who was Waxman.
The idea of finding the soil to restrain the tuberculosis bacilli was buried in his heart, and more than ten years later, streptomycin was introduced, which successfully inhibited the tuberculosis bacilli and treated a large number of tuberculosis patients.
Since then, new drugs have been discovered, and they all have a clear therapeutic effect on Mycobacterium tuberculosis, but people still underestimate this strong Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
As a king germ that has successively claimed the lives of a billion people and made 1/4 of the people in Europe die in the 19th century, if it is so easily wiped out, it is really sorry for its "great achievement" (antisense here).
Streptomycin, isoniazid, p-aminosalicylic acid, and rifampicin drugs all have obvious inhibitory effects on Mycobacterium tuberculosis, but suddenly one day, scientists found that whether it is a single drug or a combination of drugs, Mycobacterium tuberculosis has a certain degree of drug resistance.
Just like the survival of the fittest in nature, some Mycobacterium tuberculosis cannot withstand the attack of natural enemy drugs and are destroyed, but those that remain are still multiplying, constantly posing new problems to human beings.
Even now, the tuberculosis vaccine that every newborn in the mainland will take can only ensure that they will not be attacked by tuberculosis during the period when their immunity is relatively low, but once they grow, once their immunity becomes weak, once they encounter the extremely drug-resistant tuberculosis bacilli, the human body will still suffer serious damage.
This tuberculosis bacillus, which was once regarded as a "romantic germ" by Europe and became tuberculosis by the people of the mainland, has not been completely eradicated after all.
Epilogue:
However, science and technology are always advancing with the times, and if they are not eradicated now, it does not mean that they will not be eliminated in the future, and there are always people who are working hard to eliminate a germ and virus, and there will always be people who use more tenacious perseverance than bacteria to overcome everything that hinders the development of mankind.