<P> Consumption , phthisis and the White Plague are all terms used to refer to tuberculosis throughout history . It is generally accepted that Mycobacterium tuberculosis originated from other , more primitive organisms of the same genus Mycobacterium . In 2014 , results of a new DNA study of a tuberculosis genome reconstructed from remains in southern Peru suggest that human tuberculosis is less than 6,000 years old . Even if researchers theorize that humans first acquired it in Africa about 5,000 years ago , there is evidence that the first tuberculosis infection happened about 9,000 years ago . It spread to other humans along trade routes . It also spread to domesticated animals in Africa , such as goats and cows . Seals and sea lions that bred on African beaches are believed to have acquired the disease and carried it across the Atlantic to South America . Hunters would have been the first humans to contract the disease there . </P>
<P> Consumption , phthisis and the White Plague are all terms used to refer to tuberculosis throughout history . It is generally accepted that Mycobacterium tuberculosis originated from other , more primitive organisms of the same genus Mycobacterium . In 2014 , results of a new DNA study of a tuberculosis genome reconstructed from remains in southern Peru suggest that human tuberculosis is less than 6,000 years old . Even if researchers theorize that humans first acquired it in Africa about 5,000 years ago , there is evidence that the first tuberculosis infection happened about 9,000 years ago . It spread to other humans along trade routes . It also spread to domesticated animals in Africa , such as goats and cows . Seals and sea lions that bred on African beaches are believed to have acquired the disease and carried it across the Atlantic to South America . Hunters would have been the first humans to contract the disease there . </P>
consumption was the former name of which disease
consumption was the former name of which disease
tuberculosis
tuberculosis