Tuberculosis Then and Now: Perspectives on the History of an Infectious Disease

Abstract

With the rise of HIV/AIDS and an increase in multidrug-resistant forms of tuberculosis (TB) in the twenty-first century, TB has reemerged from the shadows. Although no longer the leading cause of death, TB claims almost two million lives each year. Medical professionals, politicians, and historians increasingly look to previous treatments and understandings of the disease as they approach this global health problem. In Tuberculosis Then and Now, Flurin Condrau and Michael Worboys provide a fresh perspective of TB by presenting a collection that considers the “continuities and discontinuities” from the late nineteenth century to the present (3). The majority of the essays in Tuberculosis Then and Now look at social contexts that helped shape medical treatment and public health campaigns in Great Britain, Australia, Spain, and India. In doing so, the authors give voice and agency to patients of TB and other disempowered groups, especially those considered “alien,” “undesirable,” or “other.” For example, Helen Valier draws attention to the ethics of drug trials in developing nations through a skillful examination of the Madras chemotherapy center testing in the 1950s and 1960s. The Madras trials in India provided irrefutable evidence that combination therapies did not need to be administered within a confined institutional setting. The findings were undeniably significant, especially for those countries that lacked funds for building and maintaining sanatoria, but Britain's use of a former colony retained elements of exploitation rather than mutual gain. The British Medical Research Center often clashed with the local Indian government and drew attention away from contributing factors to TB, such as poverty. Valier's essay serves as a reminder to researchers and scholars alike of the importance of balancing the goals of the larger drug trials with the needs of the local population.