There are plenty of them but I try to point out some here:

Presence of HIV infection.

TB is one of the most frequent opportunistic infections that follows HIV infection. It can
manifests as pulmonary, lymphatic, and/or meningeal (the layers of membrane enveloping
brain & spinal cord) TB. The HIV infected may come with the package of other opportunistic
infection and problems that further deteriorates the sufferer. Chronic diarrhea worsens
nutrition status. Other meningeal infection (toxoplasmosis, cryptococcal) can affect
consciousness, leading to coma and eventually death due to disrupted breathing center of the
brain. Oral (and esophageal) candidiasis, Kaposi sarcoma causes difficulty of swallowing and
pain (which contributes to worsening of nutrition intake). As in many serious infections,
sepsis may arise with death due to septic shock. As a practice standard, every diagnosis of
tuberculosis infection should include HIV testing. A delay in HIV diagnosis and treatment
helps HIV infection to progress further into the deadly AIDS. HIV brings together a bunch of
extra problems that affects mortality rate of TB patients.

Your question detail mentioned fictional portrayal of the TB infected during pre-WW2. Well
HIV was only discovered (or recognized) after WW-II era. Robert Koch presented his
discovery of Mycobacterium tuberculosis on 1882.1 If this fictional work you mean were
based on observation of TB patients of that time, its likely that these TB infected had
undiagnosed HIV infection.

Diabetes Mellitus (DM)

This particular risk factor is more important today than ever in the past as there has been an
increase of type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) patients in countries where TB is also endemic.2

1
https://www.nobelprize.org/educational/medicine/tuberculosis/readmore.html

2
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4260985/
The diabetics host immune response (innate & adaptive immunity) against TB infection is
altered. Monocyte cells (a type of white blood cell) of diabetics have reduced binding and
phagocytosis to tuberculosis bacteria.4 Diabetic mice study showed a delayed innate immune
response and initiation of adaptive immune response (necessary to restrict TB bacteria
replication).
Diabetes is reported to increase the risk of treatment failure, death, and relapse among
patients with tuberculosis.3,4

Two retrospective cohort studies of patients with pulmonary tuberculosis in Maryland, USA,
have shown a 6567 times increased risk of death in diabetic patients compared to non-
diabetic controls after adjustment for important cofactors.20,73 In a recent study by Wang and
colleagues,64 1-year all-cause mortality was 176% in diabetic patients versus 77% in non-
diabetic controls, and death specifically attributable to pulmonary tuberculosis was
significantly more common in diabetic patients (122% vs 42%). Among 416 tuberculosis-
related deaths in Sao Paulo, Brazil in 2002, diabetes was a common co-morbidity, present in
16%.21

Treatment failure can then lead to development of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-
TB), which is harder to treat.

Anemia
High prevalence of anemia among tuberculosis (TB) patients and anemia at TB diagnosis has
been associated with increased mortality.5 Reduced food intake due to reduced appetite (as
part of TB symptoms) may contribute to iron-deficiency anemia.

Experimental and epidemiological evidence suggests that iron is required for proper immune
function. Iron deficiency has been shown to compromise cell-mediated immunity, decreasing
T-cell numbers and proliferative response and potentially reducing macrophage activity
(15, 16), which may reduce host capacity to control infection. Iron status may also modulate
the type of immune response mounted through its influence on the bodys cytokine profile.
Experimental evidence has shown that iron deficiency alters the balance between Th1 and
Th2 cytokines, promoting a dominant Th2 response that has been associated with clinical TB
disease and suggested to play a role in HIV progression (3032). Consistent with these
mechanisms, we found iron deficiency to be associated with an increased risk of mortality
and HIV disease progression.5

Other factors

There are still more that I have yet to mention. Smoking, alcoholism, previous TB treatment,
multi-drug resistant TB, drug abuse, malnutrition itself, and older age are all part of factors
associated with poorer outcome.6 These are all I can gather for now.

3
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5240796/
4
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2945809/
5
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3260062/
6
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3719227/