North West

Tuberculosis killed tens of thousands of people in the North West of England during the early decades of the 20th Century.

The disease thrived in the industrial slums of Manchester, Salford and Liverpool where poverty and overcrowding were rife.

Medical advances and a programme of vaccinations meant that by the 1960s the bacteria was largely under control - but it was never completely eradicated.

Just ask Andy McMillan.

He believed the disease had been all but wiped out until he started coughing up blood.

TB consultant Mark Woodhead.

In 2007 he was diagnosed as having TB and put on a six month course of antibiotics:

"I was on 14 tablets every day, all to be taken together. I'd start my morning routine about half hour early to get all these tablets down me.

"I was quarantined for a month, in my own house, as soon as I'd been diagnosed. To this day I really have no idea how I got it, it was all a bit of a surprise."

TB today

At Manchester Royal Infirmary's TB clinic consultant Mark Woodhead sees new TB patients every week: "We see about 140 new cases a year, about 3 cases a week in central Manchester, so that's really quite a lot".

"There's a problem with TB itself, in that if patients don't take their tablets properly then that Tuberculosis germ could become resistant to one or more of the antibiotics that they are taking."

In recent years there have been several health scares in the region as medical workers, university students and prison inmates have all been diagnosed with TB.

In these cases hundreds of people who have been in contact with the infected patient have to be screened.

But being diagnosed with TB is no longer seen as the death sentence it once was.

In the days before antibiotics, the only prescription was fresh air and rest.

For children living in the smog-filled streets of industrial Manchester this meant being sent to the TB sanatorium at Abergele in Wales.

Inside Out joined Ted Shawcross and Jean Poole as they returned to the sanatorium where they'd spent much of their childhoods.

Children living there had to sleep in the open air and those with infected bones could find themselves encased in plaster for years on end.

Despite these hardships Ted and Jean have happy memories of the place:

Abergele Sanitorium - TB patients.

"I think it was a bit of a shock when you first came because it was all strange, but very quickly you soon integrated and everyone was friendly and soon you became one big family.

"I found it very claustrophobic when I left because everything seemed so small compared with being out here in the open air."

Today sanatoriums like Abergele are no longer needed. But the fight against TB continues.