[Nikki K]

TB is such a common abbreviation for tuberculosis. It pops up so frequently in historical sources and also when reading classic literature –*some character or other always seems to have suffered from it... (I'd tell you about my favourite novel but that's TMI). In fact a lot of artists have suffered from it. Perhaps why so may plays, operas and whatnot have it as a theme: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuberc..._human_culture
Also if you have an international vaccination record it's abbreviated like this. In Europe they stopped giving the BCG vaccine sometime in the early 70s unless the child is premature and has jaundice, I think, because it doesn't prevent you from contracting TB per se just some of co-inciding diseases like meningitis. Not sure about the U.S. – but when I came here they had me take the Mantoux test to screen for TB.

[PhoenixRising]

Ah, I see. Thanks, Nina. It's sad that so many people have had it. I don't think it's that common anymore.

[Nikki K]

Oh but it is! Presently, one-third of the world's population is thought to be infected with TB. New infections occur in about 1% of the population each year. In 2016, there were more than 10 million cases of active TB which resulted in 1.3 million deaths. This makes it the number one cause of death from an infectious disease. More than 95% of deaths occurred in developing countries, and more than 50% in India, China, Indonesia, Pakistan, and the Philippines.

Source

[PhoenixRising]

OMG, really? I had no idea. I just never hear about Tuberculosis these days.

[Mignonette]

Originally Posted by PhoenixRising (View Post) Ted and Robin from How I Met Your Mother, Lila. OMG, Tuberculosis, Nina? When I see Lila abbreviate TB, for some reason I always think of the show True Blood.

Ok, thanks Alex, I've never watched it

Thanks guys, now I'll be thinking of BLOOD and TUBERCULOSIS every time I use the TB abbreviation here

Nina, tuberculosis is very contagious, isn't it? I had to do the skin test when I was a student in the U.S.

Speaking of contagious diseases, I'm surprised Rodrigo, Lucrezia, and everyone else over the age of 12 didn't have syphilis. Poor Cesare had it IRL. Why was it called the "french pox"? Just because we're french, doesn't mean we're sexual libertines..well ok it does but still..

[Nikki K]

Heh, better call the board by its name, Lila. And yes, when somebody with active pulmonary TB sneezes or coughs s/he can release up to 40,000 infectious droplets every single time. Each one of these droplets may transmit the disease, since the infectious dose of tuberculosis is very small as in the inhalation of fewer than 10 bacteria may cause an infection (Nicas et al., 2005).

Well, syphilis was called the French disease because the first written records of it coincided with the French invasion of Naples in 1494/95 (we see Charles VIII's campaign through Italy in the first season of 'The Borgias' if I remember correctly)... so anyway, of course the Italian natives claimed that syphilis was spread by the French soldiers, which may or may not be true and thus it became known as the French disease. I think even to this day it's not quite clear where the Treponema bacterium that causes syphilis actually originates. A few weeks ago I stumbled over this paper where they retrieved historic Treponema genomes from archaeological remains in Mexico City leading them to speculate that some strains may have been brought to Europe after colonization but that was about a century later so it doesn't really fit our time frame but in case you're interested here is the paper.

[BL.Arinna_1982]

Hmm, guys? This is the post count thread.

[PhoenixRising]

Yeah, Arinna is right. We should move this stuff to the OT thread.

[Nikki K]

Sure, in my defence, I was counting things... like deaths by TB, infectious droplets per sneeze...

[BL.Arinna_1982]

Thank you, guys.

[PhoenixRising]

Originally Posted by Nikki K (View Post) Sure, in my defence, I was counting things... like deaths by TB, infectious droplets per sneeze...

Good point, Nina.

[BL.Arinna_1982]

The monthly post count is going to be out soon.

[PhoenixRising]

Here's this week's post count:


257,675 - 257,174 = 501


And here's our post count for June!


49. The Borgias (1676 | 55.87)


How do you like that count, Arinna?

[Mignonette]

Originally Posted by PhoenixRising (View Post) 49. The Borgias (1676 | 55.87)

Were most of those mine?

I'm not obsessed with The Borgias at all

[BL.Arinna_1982]

You are great help, hun!