Genealogy Chat

I have quite a lot of deaths in my tree due to consumption/TB. I'm wondering if this was caused through their occupations. They were all welsh miners.

Or is this just coincidence?



Deb:)

It is more likely to be a reflection on the awful living conditions with families living in very cramped and confined homes. Pulmonary TB is a lung disease, so an infected person would cough and hack and excrete the bacterium as they coughed.

I've just googled it and it's awful thinking of them going through that!

What a horrible way to die.


Deb

Hi Deb,

I had a few people in my family who had TB in the 1950's, we had a whole hospital just for people with TB. My cousin who is now 73 had it and I remember being taken as a child to see her, we could not get near her, just viewed by closed window, we weren't even aloud in the hospital to see her.

Betty

I believe an awful lot of people in North Wales had TB,and this was put down to inter-marriage,as no-one moved away from the areas of their birth.

I remember in my schooldays in the 40's and 50's,it was prevalent then,and I lived in Manchester,and they came round with a mobile Xray to screen us.One of my friends had to go into a sanatorium,for quite a long time,also one of our neighbours had it in the 40's. 3 years ago ,when my mother died,I phoned to tell her,and she was almost 90 then,so they managed to cure it at that time.

Brenda

Miners would be liable to get silicosis or pneumoconiosis, which may have been mistaken for TB in the past:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicosis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coalworker's_pneumoconiosis

Hi,

Despite living in a Sanitorium for most of their childhoods, both my paternal uncles died of TB, they were in their mid 20's and lived near Manchester.
Luckily for me my father was a tough old stick, as he married, had a decent sized family and died at at the good age of 84.

Patsy

Yes I can remember those mobile TB x ray screenings in the late 50s - it seemed pretty common as did the kids wearing calipers due to polio.

What an interesting story Mary :) TB was all but eradicated by the 70s(remember those dreaded tb jabs). Apparently though, UK now has the highest number of TB patients in europe, brought in by the recent influx of immigrants.

Michael, it's phthisis.

More people coming from countries where TB is endemic, more foreign holidays to those places, a lower take up of the innoculation because its not seen as a threat and stronger antibiotic resistant strains. There is also the high incidence of TB in people with compromised immune systems.