In 1924, German author Thomas Mann, in his novel The Magic Mountain , used tuberculosis as an extended metaphor for the illness and decay of European civilization prior to the rise of fascism in Italy and Nazi Germany . At the end of the twentieth century in America, Mann's metaphor again seems apt.
Tuberculosis is communicable though preventable and potentially fatal though treatable.
Through the nineteenth century and beyond, active tuberculosis was often a terminal illness. Aggressive public health efforts to isolate and control active cases, coupled with the advent of effective antibiotic therapy in the late 1940's and early 1950's, transformed this highly communicable disease into a curable illness in countries with effective public health controls and access to modern medicine. This steady decline was followed by an unexpected resurgence in 1985.