This clip is from the unusual 1940 15 minutes educational film, Goodbye Mr. Germ, produced by the National Tuberculosis Association (now the American Lung Association). TB is a contagious and potentially life-threatening infectious disease caused by a bacterium called Mycobacterium tuberculosis. TB has been present in the human population since antiquity - fragments of the spinal column from Egyptian mummies from 2400 BCE show definite signs of tuberculosis. The term phthisis, consumption, appears first in Greek literature. Around 460 BCE, Hippocrates identified phthisis as the most widespread disease of the times, and noted that it was almost always fatal. The registered number of new cases of TB worldwide roughly correlates with economic conditions: the highest incidences are seen in those countries of Africa, Asia, and Latin America with the lowest gross national products. The World Health Organization estimates that nine million people get TB every year, of whom 95% live in developing countries. An estimated 2-3 million people die from TB every year. In industrialized countries, the steady drop in TB incidence began to level off in the mid-1980s and then stagnated or even began to increase. The TB bacteria are spread from person to person through the air. People with TB disease of the lungs or larynx release the bacteria into the surrounding area when they cough, sneeze, talk, or otherwise expel air, dispersing droplets that contain M. tuberculosis. These droplets can ...
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