A RETIRED teacher’s tuberculosis “reactivated” more than 60 years after diagnosis when she contracted a rare bone marrow cancer.

Stephanie Altenburger died at her home in Halls Farm Close this year after contracting myelofibrosis in 2012, an inquest heard.

The disease, which stops bone marrow from producing blood cells, weakened the 75-year-old’s immune system which allowed her dormant tuberculosis to “reactivate” and spread throughout her body, consultant pathologist Dr Adnan Al-Badri told Winchester Coroner’s Court.

At Tuesday’s inquest he advised Ms Altenburger’s family to seek screening as tuberculosis is contagious.

Ms Altenburger was diagnosed with the disease in 1951 and also suffered from lung cancer before her death on September 20.

Dr Al-Badri added that Ms Altenburger’s myelofibrosis caused her spleen to swell to more than 3 kilograms in weight and compress her stomach, stopping her from eating.

She received regular blood and platelet transfusions at Winchester’s Royal Hampshire County Hospital.

Senior central Hampshire coroner Grahame Short returned a verdict of death by natural causes due to tuberculosis and myelofibrosis.

He told family at the inquest: “It was a long and slow decline – it must have been very hard for you to witness it.”