LogFAQs > #924843786

mooreandrew58 posted...

Idk arthur and lot being bandits it could come off as they where on the dumb side since most where raised in the gang. So things that where common knowledge to others may have not been for them.

It was pretty well-known at the time, though (especially since it was in the process of being discovered and categorized shortly prior to this, meaning it would have been in the papers fairly often in recent memory). Even more so because it would be of interest to them because a noted figure in the West of the era (Doc Holliday) was openly diagnosed with and eventually died of it.

No one in the camp is a complete moron (it's pretty clear most of them can read, if nothing else), and most of them (apart from ones like Bill or Uncle) seem relatively well-educated by the standards of the day, at least in the sense that they can interact with people in civilization (when they're not wanted by the law) and would understand that TB is a thing. They might not CALL it TB - they might call it "consumption", or call someone who has it a "lunger" - but they should absolutely be aware of it.

But even aside from all that, when someone looks like they're half corpse and they're hacking up bits of lung and blood from constantly phlegmy coughing, I'm probably staying the fuck away from them, even if I don't know what they might have. Because whatever it is, I don't want it.

mooreandrew58 posted...

I mean honestly I dont think much of it when I hear a person cough cause I do a bit as someone whos smoked 16 years.

You also didn't grow up in a world where TB is as big a thing as it was prior to 1900 or so.

Infection rates radically decreased once the disease was fully understood and methods of preventing infection became available, and infection rates decreased even more once vaccines to prevent it came into use. As a kid my generation definitely got mandatory vaccinations as part of going to public school, which reduced any real exposure to it as a concept even more (and ironically, the only time TB ever really got discussed as a potential problem was in the context of immigrant kids from countries that didn't vaccinate, who might thus get sick from it and potentially be a problem for others).

On the flip-side, I literally cannot imagine someone growing up today (or even slightly earlier than today) growing up and having no idea that AIDS exists. You might not be entirely sure of the symptoms, or the exact details of transmission, but you've almost certainly heard of it. It was in the news constantly in the 80s and early 90s, until even relatively isolated people would have been exposed to some awareness of it.

And AIDS is a disease that is relatively subtle about its symptoms until late-stage (which is part of what makes infection much more likely - you can be infected by someone with no visible symptoms). It's also currently treatable (more or less) and somewhat preventable - which is why panic over it has dropped to record lows. But fear of AIDS - and thus, discussion of AIDS - used to be much higher. And it likely still is in places like Africa, where infection rates are much higher, symptoms are likely more obvious, and medical treatment is less available. All of which makes it much closer to what TB was in the late 1800s.

I would expect any bandit group in Africa today to have at least some awareness of what AIDS is, except maybe in the most isolated tribes. I would expect most bandits in the dying days of the American West to be aware of what TB is.


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