Consumption


What is consumption exactly?

"feck off,tea!"

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[deleted]

He was with Theresa in about 1945.
Frank was born in 1930.

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[deleted]

It's a bacteria that disintegrates the linings of the lungs and make them fill with blood. Gradually you suffocate.

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Consumption was the "old" name for Tuberculosis.

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Exactly.

It was called that because the disease seemed to "consume" people from the inside out.

What a horrible way to die!




El Paso, Texas...ever heard of it?

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It acctually was the name for pneumonia not TB.

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No its not, its Tuberculosis.

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[deleted]

Consumption was generally the word used for TB but it was also used for any disease that, at the time, could not be explained due to lack of technology

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It wasn't pneumonia. Pneumonia is curable. At the time TB or consumption was a death sentence, thus the reason Everyone avoided Theresa when she had it. It is also very contagious.

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In the book when angela catches pneumonia however, it is refered to as pneumonia, suggesting that consumption is TB.

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