TB is a bacterial infection. It is spread through inhaling tiny droplets of saliva from the coughs or sneezes of an infected person. It mainly affects the lungs but can spread to many parts of the body, including the bones and the nervous system.

THE SYMPTOMS ARE A persistent cough- with blood in it. Weight loss Night sweats

By 1948 Tuberculosis was killing someone every 2 hours in Scotland Scotland was virtually the only country in Europe where new cases of TB were continuing to rise unchecked. Most cases were confined to crowded slums, wealthy people did contract the disease also. The most common form was Pulmonary TB (consumption) Half of those diagnosed with this would be dead within 5 years

Slum housing in Garngad, photographed in 1925.

A heavy cloud of polluted air hangs over the area, produced by the many heavy industrial works in the area, such as the St Rollox Chemical Works and the Tharsis Sulphur & Copper Works. Garngad became heavily industrialised in the 19th century, with the establishment of flax and cotton mills, iron and chemical works and railway works. The tenements that were hurriedly built to house incoming workers were of poor quality, with only outside toilets, leading to overcrowding and insanitary conditions. Diseases such as tuberculosis were rife, and the Garngad slums were regarded as some of the worst in Europe. Garngad was the scene of one of Glasgow Corporation's earliest major slum clearance programmes, beginning in Many of the residents moved to the new scheme in nearby Blackhill. New housing was built, and the makeover was taken a further stage in 1942 when the area was officially renamed Royston

Young men and women were particularly at risk and TB meningitis was CERTAIN DEATH FOR BABIES AND TODDLERS

Regulations introduced to improve the quality of food and drink helped combat non–pulmonary forms of tuberculosis but pulmonary tuberculosis presented a more complex problem.

TB was a problem all over Scotland The vast majority of cases of consumption in Glasgow in the late nineteenth century were treated in the Poor Law Hospitals. Once the infectious nature of the disease became apparent the voluntary hospitals became increasingly reluctant to take cases.

Around the turn of the twentieth century special purpose–built wards for tuberculosis patients were introduced which allowed the disease to be treated in isolation.

Treatments stressed the importance of good diet and fresh air. Because the disease was/is airborne this infected more people than it helped. It was not until the introduction of streptomycin in 1947 that effective and reliable treatment of tuberculosis was possible.

TB patients could spend a year of more resting in a sanatorium to give their bodies the chance to fight the disease. Surgery or treatment to collapse the lung sometimes did more harm than good.

Tuberculosis Playground, Mearnskirk Hospital

Developments in antiboitics, x-rays and radiation have helped to keep TB under control

BRITISH PATHE TB IN GLASGOW

A great page which has pictures of Libraries, Baths, TB hospitals etc in Glasgow

TB is still a disease suffered in poorer over crowded countries.