Not very long ago, that is, in the nineteenth century, so many Romantics, artists and authors, died due to it that it was considered quite 'romantic' to die of this troublesome terror. The patient suffering from consumption would die a slow death, surrounded by the family and friends.
Believe it or not, the 'pale' disease (as it made the victim look unnaturally pale) was so much in fashion then that women powdered and puffed themselves to get the 'pale' look. Novels, poems, plays used the dis-ease as the plot, as the twist in the plot, as the metaphor.
It was a famous fashionable social 'cause' as well because poor children, suffering as the chimney or the mining workers, wasted away due to it. Pathetic paintings of such victims were the 'done', the 'in' possession for the rich and the mighty, the chatterati then.
Have you guessed which disease we are talking about? Yes, it was the T.B. Luckily Dr. Robert Koch located the microbe causing it; fortunately he invented the vaccine to kill this troublesome terror.
Unfortunately though, it is not completely wiped out even today. Even today, in dingy dark hutments, or even in upwardly mobile places without adequate healthy diet that goes beyond the coke and the burgers/pizzas, this dreaded disease is making rapid strides.
Once again, it is the stupidly fashionable who guzzle only protein shakes and stuff pani puri's or pizzas as the food, through them, the disease has returned, and with a vicious bang, because now the disease is virulent, causes multi-organ failure and is developing variants which are more and more drug-resistant.
Luckily, post-Covid, the vaccine industry is in a healthy position, and can contain such creeps. Let us be truly health conscious by eating wholesome food, and by following holistic exercise regimens for sure. Stay healthy, (and hence) wealthy as well as, wise!
Pratima@ The real medicine is 'us' in the sense that we have to be healthy, and conscious in a holistic way.
No comments:
Post a Comment