Courtesy of Washington County, Oregon
By Arianna Antillon
Author George Orwell died of tuberculosis. So did President James Monroe, baseball Hall of Famer Christy Mathewson, enslaved American Dred Scott and movie star Vivien Leigh. Composer Frederic Chopin succumbed to “the white plague,” as did Pakistan’s founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah, South American revolutionary Simon Bolivar and Creedance Clearwater Revival guitarist Tom Fogerty.
Tuberculosis, the notorious “consumption,” has killed millions of people through the ages and about 1.5 million worldwide in 2025, but has largely been controlled in the United States through early detection and antibiotics. Center for Disease Control data reports that about 7,500 Americans contract tuberculosis in an average year. Most are cured, but some die because the infection was discovered too late, there were pre-existing conditions like a weakened immune system or they were infected by a drug resistant strain.
Southwestern College officials reported that a person on campus was infected with a drug-resistant strain and encouraged students and employees to be mindful of their health. County Health Department teams have already contacted individuals on campus known to have had contact with the infected individual. San Diego County’s Tuberculosis Control Program said people identified as contacts will be offered TB testing, symptom checks and chest x-rays.
Writer Thomas Wolfe died of tuberculosis. Other victims were O-K Corral gunfighter Doc Holliday, philosopher Franz Kafka, politician Henry Clay, country music star Jimmie Rodgers, novelist Anton Chekhov, poet John Keats, playwright Moliere and inventor Louis Braille.
Southwestern College Chief of Staff Dr. Zaneta Encarnacion said the college has contacted all known people exposed on campus but urged students to monitor their health. The exposure is thought to have happened on the Chula Vista campus between October 27 and December 14 last year.
“We worked with the County Public Health officials to host TB education workshops for our campus community,” she said. “The County will provide free testing for students who were directly exposed.
Students with concerns or questions may contact the Student Health and Wellness Center, said Encarnacion. Cases of tuberculosis exposure happen periodically on college campuses, according the County Health officials, but seldom result in secondary infections.
The Southwestern College case, however, is a drug-resistant form of TB that, while treatable, requires early detection.
Author Emily Bronte passed away from TB as did poet Charles Bukowski, writer Robert Louis Stevenson, philosopher Albert Camus, inventor Robert Fulton, King Henry VII, poet Paul Lawrence Dunbar and novelist D.H. Lawrence.
Tuberculosis can take 8-10 weeks to turn positive after and exposure, according the health officials. Symptoms to watch for include cough that lingers for more than a few weeks, fever, night sweats and unexplained weight loss.
County Health guidelines for the prevention of tuberculosis include:
– washing hands thoroughly and often
– coughing into your elbow or covering your mouth when you cough
– avoiding close contact with other people
– finishing medications as prescribed
– not returning to work or school until you’ve been cleared by your healthcare provider
County Health teams are also focused on a local high school that has detected a TB case, though they would not provide the name.
