• DOI:10.5588/ijtld.18.0239
• Corpus ID: 53027676

Modern theory of tuberculosis: culturomic analysis of its historical origin in Europe and North America.

@article{Jay2018ModernTO,
  title={Modern theory of tuberculosis: culturomic analysis of its historical origin in Europe and North America.},
  author={Smart Jason Jay and Uzay Kirbiyik and Justin R. Woods and G A Steele and G. Hoyt and Rovane Battaglin Schwengber and P Gupta},
  journal={The international journal of tuberculosis and lung disease : the official journal of the International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease},
  year={2018},
  volume={22 11},
  pages={
          1249-1257
        }
}

• S. J. Jay, U. Kirbiyik, +4 authors P. Gupta
• Published 1 November 2018
• Medicine
• The international journal of tuberculosis and lung disease : the official journal of the International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease

INTRODUCTION
An historical account of the modern theory of tuberculosis (TB) using a culturomic analysis has not been studied.

OBJECTIVE
To analyze, using culturomic methods, the history of our modern understanding of TB as a unitary disease.

METHODS
A culturomic analysis of millions of digitized texts was undertaken to quantify 200-year trends in usage of the modern term tuberculosis and pre-modern terms consumptive, phthisis, and scrofula, and to correlate these trends with significant historical events.

RESULTS
Our understanding of TB originated with Laënnec in Paris, who proposed that the seemingly disparate wasting conditions phthisis, scrofula, and consumption were each related to the same post-mortem anatomical sign: the tubercle. The term tuberculosis was coined by Schonlein in 1829, but the term's usage remained uncommon until Villemin's 1865 discovery that TB was a communicable disease, Koch's 1882 discovery of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and Pasteur's 1884 discovery of a vaccine against another communicable disease, smallpox.

CONCLUSION
Our modern understanding of TB as a unitary disease was embraced slowly. Acceptance required new terminology describing the idea, scientific confirmation that TB is an infectious disease, and evidence suggesting that it might be prevented. An innovative idea is not enough to induce widespread acceptance. The study illustrates how culturomic methods can be used to study the adoption and diffusion of an innovation, in this case the modern theory of TB.