Maria Smilios, a science journalist, was editing a book about orphan lung disease when a line attracted her attention. At the head of a rare pulmonary disease, the author noted that the treatment could be found quickly as the treatment of tuberculosis treatment was found in the Sea View Hospital in Staten Island in the 1950s.
Smilios began to study how the first clinical trial for antibiotics that saved life from the maritime prospects under the cautious supervision of an experienced nurse (all black women). But she could hardly find a nurse.
Smilios said, “These women are completely erased from history. “There was nothing about them. naught.”
She revealed her story and began to learn about the nurse that the doctor was responsible for the success of the Sea View drug test and the discovery of tuberculosis treatment.
Read more: 8 How did they change history and how they changed their history
Women behind treatment
Tuberculosis (TB) has harassed humans for thousands of years and has also appeared in archaeological records. Date again to 9,000 Many years ago. Tuberculosis records go back to 3,300 years. Sometimes the disease was as fatal as the infectious disease and was responsible for 25 %of the deaths in the United States and Europe between the 1600s and the 1800s.
In New York in the late 1920s, TB was more common among the poor who lived in crowded and often unsanitary conditions. They were sent from the administration to the sea view I struggled to hire a nurse. The white nurse feared, quit, and found employment elsewhere rather than dangerous infections.
The hospital was a black nurse, especially qualified nurses, but began to recruit southern women who could not find meaningful employment due to separation.
For decades, the nurse provided patient treatment, supported surgery, and became a disease expert.
“They knew the low tide and flow of the disease. They knew the nuances. They knew at a moment, the patient could be fine and choked next time. Tuberculosis is long and leading, ”says Smilios. The Black Angels: The story of a nurse who helped to treat tuberculosis.
Their expertise has become important for the drug test supervised by the doctor Edward Robitzek.
Smilios said, “Robitzek said that the trial would never happen unless it was for a black nurse.
Treatment TB Find
Photo of Clemmie Phillips (Credit: Elizabeth Plair)
The trial began secretly in May 1951. ROBITZEK has approached a drug company with the opportunity to test new antibiotics. It was not only human or animal test.
Smilios said, “This was the first human test and there was no data on side effects or treatment rates.
Robitzek asked if he would be willing to participate in the test by selecting five patients. Then we organized the first nurse, including Mizumi Midow Walker, EDNA Sutton, Janie B. Shirley, Clemmie Phillips and Stiversa Bethel.
In June 1951, the nurse gave the test patients the first dose of Isoniazid. For the next six weeks they continued to take the patient every day and continued to monitor. They made intense notes in Robitzek in the logbooks collected every evening.
Nurses knew that Smilios knew the patient’s condition. For example, Twitch was a side effect of the drug, but the patient slept under a heavy blanket. The nurse knew the patients so much that even the subtle part of the exercise could be detected.
Smilios said, “The blame tells us how careful they are.
The patient also experienced stupid feelings, increased appetite, weight gain and ringing. The nurse documented all changes and configured the data and presented it in Robitzek for further analysis.
The initial exam was successful and Robitzek recruited 92 patients and more black angels. After all, the test will be determined to be the most effective when the Issonia Gid is used with the other two antibiotics.
In early 1952, the newspaper announced that treatment was found, and the test patients of Sea View were flourishing. Robitzek was cited in history, glorified and remembered.
But nurses are almost forgotten.
Hidden history of tuberculosis nurses
Photos of Missouri Medou Walker (Credit: Bernice Alleyne)
When Smilios began research in 2015, some black angels were still living. One of them, Virginia Allen, 86, agreed to meet Smilios for regular interviews. She shared the name and contact information of the nurses who delivered oral history, photographs, letters and other artifacts.
Then Robitzek’s son provided SMILIOS with his father’s record, including the details of the TB trial.
Smilios learned how the nurse was treated when he first came to New York. Some patients refused to admit them, and were the worst when angry patients coughed and aimed at sputum directly infected with the nurse’s face.
Given the intimacy with the patient, the nurse had a high risk of tuberculosis, some had a disease and had to leave the job. But for decades, black angels were constant in the sea view and provided patient treatment for more and more desperate time.
Tuberculosis
Virginia Allen’s photo (Credit: Maria Sumilios)
TB bacteria Generally grows In the lungs, it can occur elsewhere, such as kidney, spine or lymph nodes. In the Sea View, the surgeon tried to cut off the infected part of the lungs to save a person, but few patients left the hospital. Some have stayed for several years before they passed away, and the nurse often cared for an unstable patient who was depressed or anxious about the future.
But after the success of the drug test, even long -term patients could leave the hospital. Last TB patient Left Seaview in 1961.
Tuberculosis remains a deadly epidemic. 2023, Almost 11 million People around the world have contracted with tuberculosis and 1.2 million people have died.
Antibiotics are still used to treat tuberculosis, including Isoniazid, which began in the secret test in Sea View Hospital under the cautious eyes of Black Angels.
Read more: What is drug Bedaquiline and why is it important to tuberculosis patients?
article source
Our writer Discovermagazine.com Use fellow review research and high -quality sources in the article and use editorial reviews for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. In this article, review the source used below.
Emilie Lucchesi wrote for some of the largest newspapers in the United States, including the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times. She won a bachelor’s degree in journalism at Missouri University and MA at Depault University. She also has a Ph.D. Illinois, which focuses on media frames, messages, and stigma communications from university communication. Emilie has written three non -fiction books. Her third, the light in the dark: Tedbundi was released on October 3, 2023, was released in Chicago Review Press and co -written with the survivor Kathy Kleiner Rubin.
