ABSTRACT
Tuberculosis physicians and public health specialists were among the first to promote global approaches to disease. Between 1870 and 1945, tuberculosis infected people in every region of the globe. Tuberculosis mortality was as much as fifty percent higher in lower-class neighborhoods than upper-class districts. Globally, as was seen in Buenos Aires and Philadelphia, treatments fell into two broad categories: medications/surgical procedures and fresh-air/diet regimens. Independent countries such as the US and Argentina did more to implement global policies than did colonies subject to exterior political power. Racial attitudes and cost led to the slow implementation of the globally accepted tuberculosis policies in India and in colonies generally. Public health officials need to take into consideration issues that may be unique to a particular global area. Although Leonard Wilson utilized comparative data to show that public health policies caused the decline of tuberculosis, those same data do not preclude the importance of other factors.
