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Apparent changes in incidence or mortality can occur over
time (apparent trend) without real changes in actual rates. It is very important to
consider these influences when analyzing trends. (1) In 19th C. Europe TB was common
and consumption a trendy, though tragic cause of death. In the operas La
Boheme and La Traviata, both heroines die from TB, while the Romantic poet Shelley also
succumbed. In the Oslo Art Gallery, a 19th C. painting The Sick Child depicts
a young girl clearly dying from TB. |