Tuberculosis: a timeless challenge for medicine

Open Access

Abstract

History of Medicine is not a discipline destined to culturally enrich only those who work in the health sector. All historians know very well how some medical events have influenced the course of history. In particular, infectious diseases, being interconnected with political, social, economic and war issues, have an important historical significance.Microbial agents are invisible enemies ready to undermine mankind and to find prosperity in human misery.Tuberculosis, better than other, is well suited to study the epistemological path of medical thought, from its origins to the present day.From the Hippocratic and Galenic thought to the anatomo-clinical method, from the advent of microbiology to the antibiotic era up to the postantibiotic era, recognizing the timeless need to implement valid social policies and effective preventive medicine actions to achieve satisfactory results.