The Forgotten Plague

By the dawn of the 19th century, tuberculosis had killed one in seven of all people who ever lived. Yet today most Americans have forgotten it existed.

This PBS documentary traces TB's path from when doctors believed it was hereditary, to Robert Koch's 1882 discovery that it was bacterial, to the sanatorium movement sending health seekers westward for clean air and sunshine. TB reshaped American architecture, created the public health movement, and drove government policy. Through survivor accounts and historians, the film reveals how America's deadliest plague touched virtually every aspect of national life.

A powerful reminder of how one disease shaped a nation - and how much the fight against infectious disease still echoes today.