Guérin was a veterinarian and worked with Albert Calmette
producing snake antivenom.
Edward Jenner had shown that innoculation with cowpox
armed the body against smallpox.
Too bad, bovine TB bacillum wasn’t benign the way
cowpox was.
Together, they began to work with bovine TB bacillum,
to find a way
to weaken it so that it could immunize without
causing TB.
They found that a glycerin-bile-potato medium grew the bacilli
and weakened it.
*
Thirteen years later after isolating and subculturing a new strain 239 times
eventually
resulted in a vaccine that could be safely used on humans but also immunized
against TB.
Treatment and prevention
Injecting an attenuated bovine bacillum
into the skin of the arm of a newborn
doesn’t sound great, but it works,
and it’s miles beyond
the Egyptian treatment, which was
“surgical lancing of the cyst
and the application of a ground mixture
of acacia gum, peas, fruits, animal blood,
insect blood, honey, and salt.”
The Egyptian treatment probably caused
more problems than it cured.
Akhenaten and Nefertiti died of TB.
It was no better in India, where
you could be treated with various meats,
breast milk, alcohol, and rest, and advised
to move to a higher altitude, or in China
where the disease was either recognized
to be uncurable, or cured by burning
and inhaling the smoke of magic talismans,
or in ancient Greece where Galen advised
“blood letting and eating barley water, fish, and fruit.”
Leprosy
BCG vaccination also protects you from leprosy.
You just don’t want to get leprosy, and there are other ways
to avoid it. In the U.S., mainly you just want to avoid
armadillos. If you spend too much time with an armadillo
and pick up a case of leprosy, isolation in a special clinic
and a treatment of antibiotics over a course of six
to twenty-four months should take care of the problem.
Never coughing
Where she grew up,
tuberculosis was feared.
In her village, so many
people died of it.
Her father died of it.
When she was a child,
so as not to worry her mother,
she never coughed.
The first antibiotic effective against tuberculosis
was isolated in 1944 by Albert Schatz, Elizabeth Bugie, and Selman Waksman.
We have many things to be afraid of today;
it would be interesting to know for sure whether science has eliminated more
serious worries than it has caused.
On one hand, smallpox; on the other, nuclear holocaust.
On one hand, lack of healthcare; on the other, the cost of healthcare.
On one hand, dying young; on the other, living too long. . . .
The first antibiotic effective against tuberculosis was isolated in 1944 by Albert Schatz, Elizabeth Bugie, and Selman Waksman. We have many things to be afraid of today; it would be interesting to know for sure whether science has eliminated more serious worries than it has caused. On one hand, smallpox; on the other, nuclear holocaust. On one hand, lack of healthcare; on the other, the cost of healthcare. On one hand, dying young; on the other, living too long. . . .
See also in The book of science:
Readings on wikipedia: