Tuberculosis caused by wound?

[rbortega]

Does anybody know if it was possible for a soldier to contract tuberculosis as the result of a gun shot wound? My 3rd Great Uncle Garrett Pence was wounded on the right shoulder in April, 1865 and then passed away from tuberculosis in February, 1881.

 

[dlofting]

Tuberculosis is caused by bacteria usually passed from one person to another through the respiratory systems. I suppose it's not impossible to get it through an open wound but think that chance would be slight. It's quite possible that your uncle contracted latent TB during the war and it remained that way for a number of years.

 

[JOHN42768]

Sixteen years seems like a long incubation period

 

[dlofting]

Sixteen years seems like a long incubation period

Apparently latent TB can stay that way for a lifetime but about 10% of people with that diagnosis do develop the full symptomatic disease. Modern treatment uses antibiotics to prevent the bacteria from developing.

 

[lupaglupa]

Does the cause of death actually say tuberculosis? Or do they say phthisis?

 

[NH Civil War Gal]

You can also be a silent carrier of TB and that happened in families AND you can get TB from Cows which is why they started testing cattle for TB back in the 1920s and 1930s for it. They recognized that the bacillus can be passed that way too. There is a rarer form but still transmissible by chickens.

However, mostly respiratory droplets is what causes TB transmission and droplets on food handling too.

When they recognized how TB was transmitted, it was also a reason to stop spitting in train and trolley cars. A great outcry of freedom and rights was raised but public health won that one, at least here in America. Public spitting is still a thing in other parts of the world and those parts still have TB problems among other things.

 

[rpkennedy]

He probably didn't get TB from his wound but he definitely could have contracted it from the hospital.

Ryan

 

[jackt62]

This question (for which I have no answer), makes me think of Jackson's shotgun wounding, which started the chain of events that led to his death by pneumonia, a totally separate respiratory illness.

 

[rbortega]

Does the cause of death actually say tuberculosis? Or do they say phthisis?

When I looked at Garrett Pence's pension file, his cause of death is listed as "consumption due to gun shot wound".

 

[lupaglupa]

When I looked at Garrett Pence's pension file, his cause of death is listed as "consumption due to gun shot wound".

Basically the same. I think @rpkennedy is correct in saying that time in the hospital after being wounded would have exposed someone, rather than the wound itself being the cause of the disease. But as @NH Civil War Gal says, they didn't yet understand transmission

 

[Kathy the history sleuth]

You can also be a silent carrier of TB and that happened in families AND you can get TB from Cows which is why they started testing cattle for TB back in the 1920s and 1930s for it. They recognized that the bacillus can be passed that way too. There is a rarer form but still transmissible by chickens.

However, mostly respiratory droplets is what causes TB transmission and droplets on food handling too.

When they recognized how TB was transmitted, it was also a reason to stop spitting in train and trolley cars. A great outcry of freedom and rights was raised but public health won that one, at least here in America. Public spitting is still a thing in other parts of the world and those parts still have TB problems among other things.

interesting details.