In medical history, which infectious disease of the lungs has been commonly referred to as the white plague due to the pale appearance and chronic wasting of patients?

Introduction / Context:
Many diseases have acquired historical or popular names based on their symptoms or social impact. The term white plague was widely used in the past to describe a particular infectious disease that caused chronic wasting, pale skin and high mortality. This question asks you to connect that name with tuberculosis, a major lung disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Given Data / Assumptions:
- The phrase white plague refers to a severe, often chronic infectious disease.- The options include typhoid, malaria, tuberculosis, bubonic plague and cholera.- Several of these diseases cause fever, but they differ in primary organ involvement and characteristic signs.- The correct choice must match the historical name white plague.

Concept / Approach:
Tuberculosis is an infectious disease that most commonly affects the lungs, although it can spread to other organs. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, tuberculosis was extremely common and often chronic, leading to gradual weight loss, pallor and weakness in patients. Because of the pale, wasted appearance of those affected, the disease was called white plague, in contrast to the bubonic plague known as the black death. Typhoid, malaria and cholera have different clinical pictures and are not usually referred to by this name. Thus, tuberculosis is the disease commonly known as the white plague.

Step-by-Step Solution:
Step 1: Recall that tuberculosis is a long standing lung infection that causes cough, blood in sputum, weight loss and pallor.Step 2: Remember that historically tuberculosis caused widespread deaths and was feared almost as much as the plague.Step 3: Recognise that the term white plague refers to the pale, wasted appearance of sufferers of tuberculosis.Step 4: Compare this with the other listed diseases, which have different nicknames and historical names.Step 5: Select option C, tuberculosis affecting mainly the lungs, as the correct answer.

Verification / Alternative check:
Historical literature and medical history books often mention tuberculosis as the white plague of Europe and America during the nineteenth century.Descriptions highlight sanatoria and special hospitals built to isolate tuberculosis patients due to the high risk of transmission.No similar historical association exists between the term white plague and typhoid, malaria, bubonic plague or cholera, confirming tuberculosis as the correct disease.

Why Other Options Are Wrong:
Option A is wrong because typhoid fever is a systemic infection of the intestine and blood, and it does not have the common nickname white plague.Option B is wrong because malaria is known for periodic chills and fevers and is not generally called white plague in historical records.Option D is wrong because bubonic plague is more closely associated with the phrase black death due to dark skin lesions, not white plague.Option E is wrong because cholera causes acute watery diarrhoea and dehydration and has its own history, not the label white plague.

Common Pitfalls:
Students may mix up historical disease names and confuse white plague with black death, leading them to choose bubonic plague incorrectly.Another pitfall is to focus only on how deadly the disease is and assume any fatal infection could be linked with the term.Remember that tuberculosis, with its slow wasting course and pale appearance of patients, is the specific disease historically known as the white plague.

Final Answer:
The disease commonly referred to as the white plague is tuberculosis, which primarily affects the lungs.