Hi!
I'm a graduate history student at the Univ. of Georgia, doing research on tuberculosis in Puerto Rico and I also have a Masters in Public Health. TB patients were rarely quarantined in PR during the first five decades of the 20th century. Physicians knew exactly what TB looked like and how to diagnose it. So, if it says TB on death certificate, it was most likely TB that caused death. There are several types of tuberculosis, the lung one being the most common; but, there are types of TB that affect other organs (including GI and urogenital systems). At the time, many cows were infected with tuberculosis and could infect people through the milk. PR had one of the highest TB mortality rates in the world!! Children and women were particularly vulnerable. The Departamento de Sanidad had a TB program going on, but funding was not that great. Plus, in my investigations I have seen evidence that appears to point out to the fact that the program may have been focusing on the wrong places and the wrong people. In addition, during those first five decades of the century, there were no good antibiotic therapies for TB. They did surgical interventions, pneumothorax collapse therapy, and so on. But, this could only help alleviate the symptoms and, although TB went into remission in some cases, it usually meant a death sentence when you got it. People also had difficulty paying for treatment. After the 1950s, treatments improved and mortality rates decreased. Hope that this helps to clear question about TB in PR.