3rd Century

200 AD - Roman doctor Claudius Galen recognized tuberculosis as incurable and recommended a treatment plan of fresh air, rest, and good food

16th Century

1546 - The book De Morbis Contagiosis was written by Girolamo Tracastoro to explain the contagious nature of tuberculosis where he mentioned that bed sheets and clothing could contain contagious particles.

17th century

1679 - Exact pathological and anatomical descriptions of the disease began to appear in the seventeenth century. Franciscus Sylvius in his Opera Medica published in 1679, was the first to identify and mention the actual tubercles as a consistent and characteristic change in the lungs and other areas of consumptive patients. He also described their progression to abscesses and cavities.

18th Century

1702 - John Jacobus Manget described the pathological features of miliary tuberculosis - the appearance of the involved lung with its surface covered with firm small white nodules resembling millet

1720 - The English physician, Benjamin Martin, was the first to form the hypothesis, in his publication, “A New Theory of Consumption” that tuberculosis could be caused by wonderfully minute living creatures, which if once gain a foothold in the body, could generate the lesions and symptoms of the disease

19th Century

1854 - Hermann Brehmer was a German physician who established the first German sanatorium for the systematic open-air treatment of tuberculosis. He was initialing suffering from TB, and was cured after spending time in healthier climate as advised by his doctor. The introduction of the sanatorium cure provided the first real step against tuberculosis.

1882 - Robert Koch discovered a staining technique that enabled him to see Mycobacterium tuberculosis. More than the scientific brilliance of Koch's discovery the World was excited by the accompanying certainty that now the fight against humanity's deadliest enemy could really begin.

1890 - The first therapy for TB patients called as artificial pneumothorax was invented by an Italian doctor, Carlo Forlanini. This treatment was based on his discovery that collapsing the lungs had positive effects on recovery from tuberculosis. The doctors then began to reduce lung volume to treat TB.

1895 - With the significant advance of the discovery of radiation by Wilhelm Konrad von Rontgen, came the hope in the progress in the treatment of tuberculosis as the severity of a patient's disease could be accurately followed and reviewed.

20th Century

1920 - The first human trials of the vaccine Bacille Calmette Guérin (BCG), an attenuated version of Mycobaterium bovis (Bovine TB).

1944 - Drs Schatz, Bugie and Waksman announced the discovery of a drug called Streptomycin and the first patient to be successfully treated with the drug.

1946 - A new drug called Para-aminosalisylic acid (PAS) was found to be moderately effective against tuberculosis.

1947 - Cases showed that Mycobacterium tuberculosis showed resistance to streptomycin

1948 - Streptomycin and PAS were used effectively against tuberculosis

1951 - A new drug Isoniazid (INH) was created. This drug when used with PAS had shown to be more effective than the previous combination of streptomycin and PAS. In 1952, Dr. Robizek and Dr. Selikoff at Seaview Hospital, New York, used Isoniazid to treat TB patients

1954 - The drug pyrazinamide was created

1955 - Cycloserine was produced

1960 - Dr John Crofton, a TB expert at the University of Edinburgh, proposed that a combination of drugs - Streptomycin, PAS and Isoniazid - made TB completely curable

1962 - Ethambutol was created

1963 - Rifampicin was used to treat tuberculosis