Albert Schatz: The Deadliest Killer In Human History

As I opened the link for the primer assignment, I was immediately intrigued. The title of this video was: “The Deadliest Killer in Human History.” In the opening it was called the “captain of death”, the “forgotten plague”, or even the “consumption (because of the severe weight loss and the way the infection appeared to “consume” the patient.” This disease would become known as tuberculosis. This was an unknown disease that effected every 1 out of 7 people. People referred to it as coughing yourself to death. It was easy to determine because people would become extremely skinny, hack, bloody coughs, and were bedridden. As awful as this was, there was no cure. In the early 1800’s, this disease hit America and affected every social class. The

At this point in time every 1 out of 170 people were living in a sanatorium. It was encouraged a person drink 6 glasses of milk and eat 6 raw eggs a day. It was concluded that only 1/3 of Trudeau’s patients got well. In 1915, Edward Trudeau would die after a forty-year struggle with Tuberculosis. In the early 1940’s penicillin was created, however it did not cure this disease. In 1943, Albert Schatz, a young microbiologist began working under a pioneering scientist named Selman Waksman. He would spend up to 18 hours a day looking for an antibiotic under his microscope. After 3 months of studying on October 19th, he discovered streptomycin, an antibiotic that seemed to be a miracle cure for tuberculosis. He gave the first dose to his mother. This was very exciting for people all over the country. The disease that had been killing people would finally come to a halt. After a while this antibiotic began to stop working, as the virus grew antibodies to it. In the late 1940’s 2 drugs would be added and by the 1950’ s most people were getting well. In November 1954, a man by the name of Larry Doyle, a twelve-year patient to tuberculosis, would be the last person to leave the