Before antibiotics were discovered, doctors often said mountain air and high altitude helped people with this bacterial lung disease. Special hospitals for it, called sanatoriums, sprang up from the small town of Warren, New Hampshire to the mountain resort of Abastumani in Georgia. What is this infectious disease, once called consumption?

Question

Accepted Answer

tuberculosis. Tuberculosis, once called consumption, was one of the biggest causes of death in the world until Selman Waksman discovered streptomycin in 1943. Before antibiotics, doctors sent patients to mountain-air sanatoriums, from the small town of Warren, New Hampshire to the mountain resort of Abastumani in Georgia, where rest, sunlight and fresh air were the standard treatment.